1AROLD    L.    LEUPP 


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THE   MIDDLE   GROUP  OF  AMERICAN 
HISTORIANS 


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THE  MIDDLE  GROUP  OF 
AMERICAN   HISTORIANS 


BY 


JOHN  SPENCER  BASSETT,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

AUTHOR  OF    "A    SHORT   HISTORY    OP   THE    UNITED   STATES" 
"  THE   LIFE   OF  ANDREW   JACKSON,"    ETC. 


Nefo  gorfc 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1917 

Ml  rights  reserved 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


COPYRIGHT,  1917, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  January,  1917. 


NortoooD 

J.  B.  Cashing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


TO 

JESSIE  LEWELLIN  BASSETT 


PREFACE 

HISTORY  is  now  being  written  in  the  United  States 
by  a  larger  number  of  persons  than  ever  before.  It 
is  also  being  taught  and  studied  more  extensively 
than  ever  in  our  schools,  colleges,  and  universities 
and  with  excellent  results.  Every  part  of  the  educa 
tional  machine  has  done  its  share  to  make  this  a  fat 
age  for  the  historian.  Yet  in  proportion  to  the  popu 
lation  history  is  less  read  to-day  by  voluntary  readers 
than  it  was  read  a  hundred  years  ago.  None  of  our 
historians  command  the  same  degree  of  respect  from 
the  public  that  men  like  Bancroft,  Prescott,  Irving, 
Motley,  and  Sparks  commanded  in  their  day. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  historian  who  now 
makes  a  living  out  of  his  profession  of  historian. 
Most  of  those  who  are  writing  are  able  to  live  from 
personal  incomes  or  from  their  salaries  as  profes 
sors  of  history.  We  have  been  used  to  this  state  of 
affairs  so  long  that  many  intelligent  people  do  not 
realize  that  there  was  once  a  day  in  which  American 
writers  could  trust  themselves  wholly  to  history  and 
not  be  disappointed.  If  in  describing  the  careers  of 
the  men  who  succeeded  in  this  field  in  the  past  century 
this  book  can  at  the  same  time  give  historians  and  the 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

well  wishers  of  history  some  more  confidence  in  the 
historian's  profession,  it  will  accomplish  two  very 
desirable  things. 

My  plan  has  been  to  throw  up  in  large  outline  the 
most  eminent  of  the  men  of  the  group  concerned. 
Jeremy  Belknap,  George  Bancroft,  Jared  Sparks, 
William  Hickling  Prescott,  John  Lothrop  Motley, 
and  Peter  Force  have  been  given  special  prominence, 
while  the  work  of  other  men  has  been  treated  in 
an  introductory  chapter  on  the  development  of  our 
history  before  the  civil  war.  Such  an  introduction,  it 
is  hoped,  will  serve  for  a  background  against  which  the 
careers  of  the  most  eminent  characters  may  be  out 
lined  in  bold  relief  with  advantageous  results.  Prob 
ably  the  American  of  to-day  will  derive  more  pleasure 
from  such  a  treatment  of  the  subject  than  from  a  book 
in  which  all  the  historians  within  the  "middle  period" 
should  be  treated  in  space  allotments  proportionate  to 
their  services.  The  present  volume,  also,  may  serve 
me  for  an  outline  of  a  larger  work  of  the  more  compre 
hensive  kind  just  mentioned,  if  health  and  years  allow 
me  to  write  it. 

In  one  sense  the  "middle  period"  begins  with  the 
end  of  the  revolution :  in  another  it  begins  soon  after 
the  war  of  1812,  let  us  say  about  1826,  when  Sparks 
began  to  give  himself  to  history.  The  reader  may 
choose  the  beginning  for  himself.  It  is  certain  that 
history  writing  took  on  a  new  character  with  the 
achievement  of  independence,  and  it  is  also  certain 


PREFACE  ix 

that  Sparks's  widely  heralded  researches  infused  a  new 
spirit  into  the  historians  of  the  day. 

The  end  of  the  period,  as  I  understand  it,  lies  where 
the  scientific  spirit  secures  domination  over  the  patri 
otic  school  that  had  ruled  for  several  decades.  Pos 
sibly  the  organization  of  the  American  Historical 
Association  in  1884  would  be  a  convenient  date  to 
mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  period.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Association  was  in  some  respects  the  result 
rather  than  the  herald  of  a  new  school.  From  1865 
to  1884,  however,  history  in  the  United  States  was 
written  in  the  afterglow  of  the  civil  war,  and  it  was 
not  scientific.  Keeping  in  mind  both  sides  of  this 
dilemma,  we  may  say  that  the  new  spirit  existed  funda 
mentally  in  the  minds  of  scholars  about  the  middle  of 
the  century  and  that  it  was  not  revealed  to  public 
view  until  the  cloud  of  sectional  feeling  lifted.  In  this 
view  the  year  1884  may  well  be  taken  as  the  dividing 
point  between  two  periods  of  historical  endeavor  in  our 
country. 

For  my  purposes  I  have  chosen  to  assign  Parkman 
to  the  new  school.  While  he  wrote  with  that  fine 
appreciation  of  style  which  was  characteristic  of  Ban 
croft  and  the  literary  historians,  his  industry,  his 
research  among  documents,  and  especially  his  detach 
ment  seem  to  place  him  among  the  men  of  to-day. 
On  the  whole,  the  assignment  of  Parkman  to  the  new 
school  is  satisfactory  to  me,  although  other  persons 
may  not  hold  the  same  opinion  of  it. 


x  PREFACE 

Each  of  the  sketches  of  individuals  here  submitted 
is  necessarily  a  unit  in  itself.  But  each  man  had  some 
thing  to  do  with  another  of  the  group.  To  give  an 
account  of  each  career,  therefore,  has  made  some  repe 
tition  necessary.  I  hope  a  charitable  reader  will 
believe  that  I  have  sought  to  reduce  it  to  the  lowest 
terms  in  keeping  with  lucid  and  informing  narrative. 

The  substance  of  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  chap 
ters  was  given  in  three  lectures  before  the  Institute  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  of  Columbia  University,  in  October, 
1916 ;  and  a  large  part  of  the  fifth  chapter  was  read  in 
the  same  month  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society.  None  of  this  matter,  however,  is  published 
elsewhere  than  in  these  pages. 

JOHN  SPENCER  BASSETT. 

NOBTHAMPTON,   MASSACHUSETTS, 

November  1,  1916. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    EARLY  PROGRESS  OF  HISTORY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  : 

1.  The  Colonial  Historians 1 

2.  The  Influence  of  the  Revolution        .         .         .11 

3.  Popular  Historical  Writers         ....  18 

4.  Jeremy  Belknap  and  Ebenezer  Hazard      .         .  24 

5.  Early  Histories  of  the  United  States  .         .         .  44 

6.  Gayarre 49 

II.    JARED  SPARKS  : 

1.  Early  Activities         .        .        .        .        .        .57 

2.  Editor  of  the  North  American  Review         .        .      64 

3.  Early  Historical  Activity 71 

4.  Twelve  Fruitful  Years 80 

5.  Collector  of  Historical  Documents     ...       90 

6.  Sparks  in  the  Hands  of  His  Critics    .         .         .100 

7.  Sparks's  Method  of  Working     .         .         .         .114 

8.  College  Professor  and  President         .        .        .     123 

III.    GEORGE  BANCROFT: 

1.  Student  and  Schoolmaster         .        .        .        .138 

2.  Literary  Apprenticeship 150 

3.  A  Literary  Politician 165 

4.  Early  Career  as  a  Historian       ....  177 

5.  Bancroft  as  a  Statesman 188 

6.  Minor  Activities 200 

IV.    Two  LITERARY  HISTORIANS: 

1.  William  Hickling  Prescott         .        .        .        .211 

2.  John  Lothrop  Motley 223 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOB 

V.  PETER  FORCE,  THE  COMPILER: 

1.  His  Early  Career        .         .         .        .        .         .  233 

2.  The  American  Archives,  Origin  of  the  Enter 

prise    .  ......  239 

3.  Relations  with  the  Government          .         .         .  246 

4.  The  Work  Published 261 

5.  Peter  Force  as  a  Collector          ....  274 

6.  Other  Activities  of  Peter  Force ....  290 

7.  Last  Years  of  Activity 293 

VI.    THE  HISTORIANS  AND  THEIR  PUBLISHERS    .        .        .  303 

INDEX 317 


THE  MIDDLE  GROUP  OF  AMERICAN 
HISTORIANS 


MIDDLE  GROUP  OF  AMERICAN 
HISTORIANS 

CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  PROGRESS  OF  HISTORY  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES 

1.    The  Colonial  Historians 

THE  first  historians  in  the  region  which  is  now  the 
United  States  were  European-born  Americans,  who 
wrote  with  the  belief  that  future  generations  would 
demand  the  story  of  the  beginnings  of  a  great  state. 
To  them  it  was  a  pious  duty  to  record  the  events  they 
had  witnessed.  In  Virginia  and  in  Massachusetts 
they  were  especially  notable.  For  the  history  of  the 
establishment  of  the  former  colony  we  have  Captain 
John  Smith,  William  Strachey,  Edward  Maria  Wing- 
field,  John  Pory,  George  Percy,  Rev.  Alexander 
Whitaker,  and  George  Sandys,  all  of  whom  wrote  of 
the  first  years  of  the  colony.  After  them  came  a 
pause  of  nearly  a  hundred  years  before  historians 
long  resident  in  the  colony  began  to  write.  For 
Massachusetts  we  have  the  beginnings  described  by 


2  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Edward  Winslow,  Governor  William  Bradford,  and 
John  Winthrop,  English-trained  men  who  were  deeply 
loyal  to  the  purposes  for  which  the  New  England  col 
onies  were  founded  and  who  wrote  in  order  that  poster 
ity  might  not  forget  how  the  early  perils  had  been  met 
and  overcome. 

Each  group  was  grimly  in  earnest  and  very  religious, 
but  in  different  ways.  The  Virginians  were  members 
of  the  Church  of  England  at  a  time  when  it  was  deeply 
inspired  by  the  reforms  of  the  Elizabethan  age.  Puri 
tanism  still  dwelt  within  its  body,  but  the  genial  influ 
ence  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  also  felt. 
Early  Virginia  zeal,  therefore,  was  a  thing  fit  for  roman 
tic  adventurers  staking  their  all  on  the  favor  of  God  and 
their  own  ability.  When  it  expressed  itself  in  historical 
literature  it  was  freely  human.  Something  of  the 
same  cast  of  thought  that  gave  Shakspere  and  Ben 
Jonson  their  peculiar  charm  was  revealed  in  it.  The 
Puritan  historians  were  rigidly  devout.  They  belong 
to  the  period  which  saw  the  triumph  of  the  men  who 
taught  rigid  simplicity.  For  the  resonant  phrases  of 
the  Prayer  Book  they  substituted  the  severe  conven 
tions  of  Calvin.  Romance  was  chased  out  of  the  heart 
and  the  fear  of  hell  was  suspended  like  a  sword  over 
every  threshold.  Strict  morals  and  godly  living  were 
instilled  in  the  minds  of  young  and  old.  Spontaneity 
gave  place  to  self-restraint  and  human  feelings  were 
clipped  and  shorn  of  all  that  did  not  lead  to  pious 
thinking. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  3 

The  Puritan  was  intellectual.  His  disputes  over 
dogma  sharpened  his  wits,  he  delighted  in  arguments, 
and  his  democratic  form  of  society  promoted  popular 
education.  The  early  Puritans,  therefore,  showed 
more  interest  than  the  Virginians  in  preserving  their 
history,  after  the  first  burst  of  zeal  was  over.  In 
Virginia  idealism  quickly  gave  place  to  materialism, 
as  tobacco  and  land  became  the  subjects  of  thinking 
and  planning.  In  New  England  Puritan  idealism 
lost  something,  no  doubt,  with  the  passage  of  the  imme 
diate  era  of  migration,  but  it  remained  the  strongest 
fact  in  these  colonies.  Thus  the  impulse  to  write 
history  was  kept  alive,  a  vital  thing,  and  historical  works 
appeared  —  at  great  intervals,  it  is  true  —  but  without 
the  long  period  of  silence  that  left  Virginia  nearly  a 
century  with  no  voice  raised  in  telling  the  story  of 
her  past. 

Let  us  pursue  the  contrast  a  little  further.  The 
literary  impulse  in  Virginia  was  destined  to  be  ephem 
eral.  It  could  hardly  have  been  otherwise,  since  it 
was  born  of  the  mere  zeal  for  planting  a  new  dominion 
of  the  English  stock.  Tobacco  growing  and  land 
speculation  soon  became  the  absorbing  themes  of  con 
versation  and  striving.  Prosperity  came  apace  and  a 
leisure  class  appeared;  but  it  was  not  a  thoughtful 
class.  Outside  nature  was  most  genial,  inviting  the 
planters  to  the  soft  pleasures  of  the  senses.  Courtesy 
and  pleasant  manners,  hospitality  and  the  love  of  per 
sonal  honor  went  into  the  standards  of  the  best  living ; 


4  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

but  severe  mental  discipline  was  not  a  characteristic  of 
either  planter,  clergyman,  or  lawyer.  Here  was  no 
fertile  ground  for  the  development  of  history  writing. 
The  first  native  Virginian  to  break  through  the  crust 
of  indifference  was  Robert  Beverley,  a  prominent 
planter,  who  published  a  "History  of  Virginia"  in 
1705.  He  was  led  to  write  the  book  by  accident,  and 
not  by  a  desire  to  assume  the  role  of  historian.  While 
in  London  he  was  shown  that  part  of  Oldmixon's 
"British  Empire  in  America"  which  related  to  Vir 
ginia.  He  was  disgusted  with  its  defects  and  under 
took  to  write  a  better  book.  He  had  been  secretary 
of  Virginia  and  was  acquainted  with  the  documentary 
sources  of  its  history.  He  did  not,  however,  make  a 
large  use  of  them ;  and  the  chief  value  of  his  work  was 
in  his  wise  and  comprehensive  views  of  colonial  society. 
The  other  historian  of  this  colony  was  William 
Stith.  He  was  a  man  of  true  scholarship;  and  his 
"History  of  the  First  Discovery  and  Settlement  of 
Virginia,"  published  as  part  one  of  a  larger  work, 
appeared  in  1747.  It  was  accurate,  so  far  as  avail 
able  materials  went.  He  had  access  to  the  records  of 
the  London  Company  and  drew  largely  from  them  and 
from  the  works  of  Captain  John  Smith.  Part  one  ended 
with  the  fall  of  the  company  in  1624.  Stith  had  no 
sense  of  proportion,  and  his  book  did  not  please  the 
Virginia  planters,  being  too  heavy  for  their  taste. 
They  gave  it  such  poor  encouragement  that  he  did  not 
carry  his  researches  further.  While  he  is  entitled  to 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  5 

credit  for  writing  a  thoroughly  modern  book,  we  can 
commend  neither  his  lack  of  adjustment  to  his  public 
nor  his  want  of  devotion  to  the  cause  of  history.  Had 
he  been  very  earnest  in  his  vocation  he  would  not  have 
been  discouraged  by  the  indifference  of  his  compa 
triots.  His  failure  left  Virginia  history  an  unworked 
field  for  many  a  year. 

Turning  to  New  England  we  find  a  more  steady 
development.  Bradford  and  Winthrop  were  men  of 
great  insight.  The  first  wrote  "The  History  of  Plym 
outh  Plantation"  from  the  beginning  to  1646,  leav 
ing  his  manuscript  unpublished.  The  book  has  been 
preserved  in  this  state,  a  part  of  it  being  published  by 
Bradford's  nephew,  Nathaniel  Morton,  in  his  "New 
England's  Memorial,"  1669.  The  manuscript  was  in 
the  tower  of  the  Old  South  Church,  in  Boston,  when 
the  revolution  began.  It  was  carried  off  by  British 
soldiers  and  was  long  considered  lost;  but  it  came  at 
last  to  the  library  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  where  it 
lay  unnoticed  in  his  grace's  library  at  Fulham 
Palace.  Bishop  Wilberforce,  of  Oxford,  discovered  it 
and  mentioned  it  in  1844  in  a  book  on  the  Protestant 
church  in  America.  Anderson  also  spoke  of  it  in  his 
"History  of  the  Colonial  Church,"  in  1848.  Seven 
years  later  two  gentlemen  in  Boston  came  across  the 
reference  in  Anderson  and  took  steps  to  establish  the 
identity  of  the  manuscript.  The  discovery  caused 
great  rejoicing  in  Boston  literary  circles.  The  Bishop 
of  London  refused  to  surrender  the  precious  manu- 


6  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

script,  but  allowed  a  copy  to  be  taken,  from  which 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  published  a  com 
plete  edition  in  1856,  enriched  with  notes  by  Charles 
Deane.  In  1896  the  Bishop  of  London  gave  up  the 
manuscript,  which  was  deposited  in  the  State  Library, 
in  Boston ;  and  in  1912  it  was  published  by  the  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society  in  a  final  authoritative  form 
with  valuable  additional  notes  by  Worthington  C. 
Ford.  Bradford's  "History"  is  a  Puritan  book  in  the 
best  sense.  It  is  an  earnest  and  sincere  record  in  a 
loosely  annalistic  form,  deriving  its  chief  value  from  its 
accurate  statement  of  facts  and  its  transparent  hon- 
^/fcsty.  It  will  ever  remain  one  of  the  most  valuable 
books  in  the  field  of  American  history. 

John  Winthrop's  journal,  published  first 1  in  1790, 
is  generally  known  as  "A  History  of  New  England." 
It  deals  with  the  period  from  1630  to  1649.  Winthrop, 
more  than  anyone  else,  was  the  founder  of  the  colony 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  he  was  long  its  governor. 
His  book  is  a  careful  account  of  such  transactions  as 
he  thought  worth  preserving.  It  is  very  full  of  events 
relating  to  Massachusetts,  and,  like  Bradford's  book, 
it  abounds  in  incidents  that  the  author  considered 
manifestations  of  God's  special  care  for  his  people. 
But  one  who  reads  it  must  gain  a  vivid  impression  of 
the  life  and  problems  in  church  and  state  of  the  founders 

1  Winthrop's  manuscript  is  in  three  volumes.  The  third  was  lost  for  a 
while  and  did  not  appear  in  the  edition  of  1790.  It  was,  however,  dis 
covered  in  1816,  and  a  complete  edition  was  published  in  two  volumes  in 
1825-26  with  notes  by  James  Savage.  A  new  edition  appeared  in  1853. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  7 

of  New  England.  Though  it  has  less  unity  and  less 
charm  of  narration  than  the  "History  of  Plymouth 
Plantation,"  it  is  one  of  the  great  books  of  our  historical 
literature. 

While  some  less  important  books  belong  to  the  early 
period  of  New  England  existence,  we  do  not  come  to 
another  notable  group  of  historical  works  until  we 
come  to  the  long  struggle  of  the  settlers  with  the 
Indians.  Here  was  a  series  of  dramatic  events  which 
made  a  deep  impression  on  the  people.  Other  parts 
of  the  continent  had  their  Indian  wars,  but  nowhere 
else  was  there  the  same  disposition  to  write  about 
them.  The  desire  to  preserve  heroic  deeds  and  to 
attest  the  goodness  of  providence  in  giving  victory 
to  his  servants  was  alleged  as  the  object  for  which  the 
writers  wrote ;  but  it  may  be  assumed  that  one  object 
of  the  authors  was  to  make  money,  always  the  most 
sustaining  motive  of  popular  historical  efforts.  These 
narratives  were  full  of  a  spirit  of  severity.  To  the 
settlers  of  colonial  times,  as  to  the  frontiersmen  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  savages  were  the  embodiment 
of  cruelty.  It  was  rare  that  one  of  the  narrators 
showed  tolerance  for  the  natives,  who  in  reality  were 
only  defending  their  homes  from  the  aggression  of  the 
whites.  Acts  of  cruelty  on  the  part  of  the  Indians 
were  not  wanting,  but  they  were  probably  offset  by 
the  retaliation  of  the  white  men;  and  the  narratives 
that  have  come  down  to  us  are  full  of  a  spirit  of  satis 
faction  for  the  fell  vengeance  of  the  colonial  armies. 


8  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

The  Pequot  war,  King  Philip's  war,  and  the  long 
series  of  struggles  that  occurred  in  connection  with  the 
conflict  between  the  British  and  the  French  in  America 
furnished  the  themes.  Particularly  appealing  were 
the  narratives  of  the  suffering  captives  taken  by  the 
Indians  and  carried  off  to  Canada.  Some  of  these 
narratives,  notably  Rev.  John  Williams's  "Redeemed 
Captive  returning  to  Zion"  and  Mrs.  Mary  Row- 
landson's  "Narrative  of  Captivity  and  Restoration," 
are  extremely  vivid  and  pathetic  stories  of  adventure. 
This  cycle  of  minor  historical  narratives  stimulated  the 
interest  of  the  people  in  history  and  opened  the  road 
to  more  serious  things. 

Of  the  writers  who  wrote  about  the  growth  of 
political  and  religious  life  in  New  England  two  were 
most  notable,  Thomas  Prince  and  Thomas  Hutchinson. 
The  first  was  a  minister  in  Boston.  In  his  profession 
he  was  not  eminent,  being  a  thoughtful  man  whose 
ministrations  were  not  characterized  by  eloquent 
preaching  or  original  theological  views.  But  he  loved 
the  records  of  the  past  and  possessed  the  true  anti 
quarian  spirit.  He  was  zealous  in  collecting  docu 
ments  and  works  published  on  New  England  history. 
His  valuable  library  was  preserved  in  the  tower  of  the 
Old  South  Church  until  the  irreverent  British  soldiers, 
who  held  Boston  against  the  revolting  colonists  until 
Washington  drove  them  out  in  1776,  took  the  edifice 
for  a  riding  school  and  left  the  books  to  the  mercy  of 
careless  intruders.  Some  of  these  treasures  survived  the 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  9 

perils  of  the  time  and  are  now  in  the  keeping  of  the 
Boston  Public  Library.  But  the  most  enduring  result 
of  Prince's  devotion  to  history  was  his  "Chronological 
History  of  New  England  in  the  form  of  Annals,"  the 
first  volume  of  which  was  published  in  1736.  It  was 
dull  and  formless,  but  it  was  written  in  the  most  care 
ful  manner.  Accuracy  and  love  of  detail  make  it  a 
delight  to  the  genealogist  and  antiquarian.  "I  cite 
my  vouchers  to  every  passage,"  he  said,  "and  I  have 
done  my  utmost,  first  to  find  out  the  truth,  and  then 
to  relate  it  in  the  clearest  order."  Posterity  is  willing 
to  grant  that  he  achieved  his  object,  and  it  gives  him 
a  place  among  the  most  worthy  of  our  historical 
scholars.  The  small  sale  of  his  first  volume,  which 
carried  the  story  of  New  England  history  to  September 
7,  1630,  caused  the  publisher  to  refuse  to  bring  out  a 
second  volume.  The  author  was  not  able  to  proceed 
at  that  time,  but  in  1755  he  began  a  continuation  in 
serial  parts  at  sixpence  each.  This  venture  proved  as 
unpopular  as  the  first  volume,  and  only  three  of  the 
parts  were  published.  Like  Stith,  in  Virginia,  he  had 
not  the  art  of  pleasing  the  public. 

Thomas  Hutchinson  was  probably  the  best  historian 
who  wrote  in  the  colonial  period.  He  was  a  descendant 
of  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson,  the  Antinomian,  and  some 
thing  of  her  free,  spirit  and  mental  acumen  was  in  him. 
He  graduated  from  Harvard  when  sixteen  years  old, 
became  a  prosperous  Boston  merchant,  and  finally  was 
called  into  the  service  of  the  colony.  He  became 


10  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

lieutenant-governor  in  1758,  chief  justice  in  1760,  acting 
governor  in  1769,  and  governor  in  1771.  For  a  time 
he  was  very  popular,  but  his  stand  in  favor  of  loyalty 
in  the  controversy  with  the  crown  brought  the  whigs 
down  upon  him.  The  stamp  act  mob  destroyed  his 
house  and  scattered  his  books  and  papers  through  the 
streets.  He  tried  to  reconcile  the  king  and  his  sub 
jects,  hoping  to  save  the  integrity  of  the  British  empire. 
In  1774  he  went  to  England,  never  to  return.  The 
king  allowed  him  a  pension  and  Oxford  gave  him  the 
honorary  degree  of  doctor  civilis  juris,  but  neither 
money  nor  honor  could  salve  a  heart  that  bled  for  the 
sufferings  of  his  native  land.  He  died  in  1780. 

Among  the  articles  of  property  recovered  after  his 
house  was  wrecked  by  the  stamp  act  rioters  was  the 
soiled  manuscript  of  the  second  volume  of  his  "History 
of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay."  The  first  had 
appeared  in  1764,  bringing  the  history  of  the  colony 
down  to  1691.  The  second  volume,  so  fortunately 
rescued,  was  published  in  1767.  It  carried  the  narra 
tive  forward  to  1750.  After  his  arrival  in  London 
Hutchinson  completed  a  third  volume  which  was  left 
unpublished  until  1828.  His  book  is  not  faultless. 
The  object  of  abuse  by  the  whigs,  he  could  hardly  be 
expected  to  give  full  credit  to  their  motives ;  but  it 
may  be  said  that  he  had  a  fairer  sense  of  the  two- 
sidedness  of  the  controversy  than  any  other  person 
who  wrote  about  it  for  a  hundred  years  after  the 
revolution  was  over.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  work 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  11 

the  treatment  is  broad  and  well  balanced,  details  are 
subordinated  to  larger  movements,  and  there  is  more 
detachment  than  in  any  other  New  England  historian. 
As  a  liberal  and  able  man  of  culture,  Hutchinson  set 
out  to  create  a  picture  of  the  colony's  progress ;  and  he 
performed  his  task  in  the  manner  of  a  master. 

Not  all  the  colonial  historians  lived  in  Virginia  and 
Massachusetts.  Outside  of  these  colonies  are  a  few 
men  who  would  demand  notice  in  a  longer  sketch  than 
this.  Among  them  are  Dr.  Cadwallader  Golden  and 
William  Smith,  of  New  York,  Samuel  Smith,  of  New 
Jersey,  and  John  Lawson,  of  North  Carolina,  all  men 
of  fair  ability.  The  first,  second,  and  fourth  were 
colony  officials  of  high  rank,  men  who  stood  out  above 
the  mass  of  colonists  in  which  they  lived.  The  third, 
Samuel  Smith,  was  a  plain  Quaker,  industrious  and 
conscientious.  His  book  described  the  history  of  New 
Jersey  with  the  pen  of  an  average  man,  at  a  time  when 
the  difference  between  average  men  and  their  superiors 
was  wider  than  it  is  to-day.  It  has  not  been  entirely 
superseded.  Of  all  the  group  only  one,  John  Lawson, 
had  a  good  literary  style. 

2.     The  Influence  of  the  Revolution 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  Revolution  was  unfavor 
able  to  the  writing  of  history.  It  produced  a  period 
of  confusion,  in  which  the  attention  of  men  was  de 
manded  by  the  more  serious  problems  of  life.  A  large 
portion  of  the  leisure  class,  those  who  would  either 


12  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

write  or  read  history,  were  tories,  some  of  whom  were 
driven  from  the  country,  while  the  others  were  at  vari 
ance  with  the  spirit  of  the  new  government  and  were 
not  interested  in  its  history.  The  whigs,  however, 
were  zealous  for  their  history,  but  their  zeal  oozed  out 
at  their  finger  tips.  Ebenezer  Hazard,  who  had  in 
mind  great  historical  projects,  gives  us  the  following 
illuminating  statement : 

"The  war  and  the  numerous  avocations  consequent  upon  it,  have 
thrown  every  man's  mind  into  such  an  unsettled  and  confused 
state  that  but  few  can  think  steadily  upon  any  subject.  They 
hear  of  useful  designs,  they  give  you  all  the  encouragement  which 
can  be  derived  from  the  warmest  approbation  of  your  plan,  they 
will  even  promise  you  assistance.  Politics  intrude  —  kick  you  and 
your  designs  out  of  their  heads ;  and  when  you  appear  again,  why 
they  really  forgot  that  the  matter  had  been  mentioned  to  them. 
I  have  been  repeatedly  served  so  with  reference  to  my  collection."  l 

This  complaint  was  written  in  1779,  while  war  was 
still  the  chief  object  of  interest.  Soon  after  peace  was 
made,  historians  of  the  glorious  struggle  began  to 
appear;  but  their  chief  source  of  information  was 
British.  Out  of  the  records  of  the  thirteen  colonies, 
badly  kept  and  preserved  in  places  widely  remote  from 
one  another,  it  was  a  difficult  task  to  prepare  a  narra 
tive  of  what  had  been  done.  But  in  England  were  all 
the  reports  of  operations  in  one  collection,  sent  home 
by  British  officers.  And  out  of  these  reports  had  been 
prepared  year  by  year  the  accounts  of  military  events 
in  the  "Annual  Register"  then  conducted  under  whig 

1  Belknap  Papers,  I,  12  ("  Colls."  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.,  Ser.  V,  Vol.  H). 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  IB 

influence.  At  that  time  the  British  whigs  opposed 
the  American  war  and  believed  that  the  American 
whigs  would  have  remained  loyal  Britons  had  they  not 
been  mistreated.  Among  them  was  Edmund  Burke, 
who  was  employed  to  write  the  statements  in  the 
"Register"  referring  to  the  American  controversy. 
He  wrote  well,  giving  the  facts  that  made  the  conduct 
of  the  Americans  appear  in  a  favorable  light. 

It  was,  therefore,  to  Burke,  in  the  "Annual  Register" 
that  the  first  American  historians  turned  for  their  in 
formation  in  writing  about  the  revolution.  They 
trusted  him  implicitly :  in  fact,  they  copied  large  por 
tions  of  his  narrative  without  quotation  marks  and 
with  little  or  no  change.  Two  men  were  particularly 
notable  in  this  respect,  Rev.  William  Gordon,  D.D., 
and  Dr.  David  Ramsay.  The  former  was  a  clergyman 
living  near  Boston  during  the  war.  He  returned  to 
England  in  1786  and  in  1788  published  in  London  his 
"History  of  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Establishment  of 
the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America," 
a  substantial  book  in  four  volumes.  It  was  generally 
accepted  as  an  original  work  and  was  widely  read. 
The  present  generation,  having  discovered  that  most 
of  it  was  taken  from  the  "Register,"  holds  it  in  slight 
honor.  Dr.  Ramsay's  work,  "History  of  the  Ameri 
can  Revolution,"  in  two  volumes,  was  published  in 
1789.  The  author  did  not  hold  the  view  of  the  British 
whigs  that  the  revolt  was  due  solely  to  the  mistakes  of 
the  tory  government.  He  declared  that  it  was  a 


14  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

natural  result  of  general  tendencies,  the  growing  dis 
position  of  Great  Britain  to  unify  the  empire  and  the 
growing  desire  of  the  colonists  to  rule  themselves.  But 
for  a  large  portion  of  the  information  in  his  book  he 
drew  directly  from  the  "Annual  Register."  Dr.  Ram 
say  was  a  resident  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and 
was  more  noted  as  an  author  and  political  leader  than 
as  a  physician.  He  wrote  several  books  besides  his 
work  on  the  revolution:  in  fact,  he  was,  perhaps,  the 
most  active  historian  of  his  day  in  the  United  States ; 
but  none  of  his  other  productions  had  the  same  vogue 
as  the  "History  of  the  Revolution." 

The  desire  to  preserve  the  record  of  the  struggle  for 
independence  that  resulted  in  histories  of  the  war  led 
to  the  writing  of  biographies  of  its  prominent  leaders. 
Of  this  class  the  most  famous  was  Chief  Justice  Mar 
shall's  "Life  of  George  Washington"  (5  vols.,  1804- 
1807).  Although  federalist  in  spirit,  it  was  a  well-con 
structed  work,  worthy  of  the  subject  and  of  the  author's 
high  position.  It  was  accepted  by  the  friends  of  Wash 
ington  as  a  sufficient  tribute,  and  was  issued  in  several 
editions.  Another  biography  that  had  a  wide  circu 
lation,  written  also  by  an  eminent  statesman  and  deal 
ing  with  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  revolution,  was 
William  Wirt's  "Sketches  of  the  Life  and  Character  of 
Patrick  Henry"  (1817).  In  sentiment  and  manner  it 
was  the  opposite  of  Marshall's  book ;  for  it  was  repub 
lican  in  feeling  and  light  and  trivial  in  treatment. 
But  the  author's  easy  style  made  it  an  attractive  book 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  15 

of  its  kind,  and  it  was  widely  read.  At  the  time  these 
two  books  were  written  the  market  for  literature  in  the 
United  States  was  dominated  by  strong  personal  sen 
timent.  A  man  bought  a  biography  because  it  set 
forth  his  own  political  sentiments  or  his  ideas  of  noble 
character.  Marshall  wrote  for  people  holding  one 
kind  of  political  views  and  Wirt  for  those  holding 
another  kind.  Both  paid  tribute  to  exalted  personal 
character,  and  neither  wrote  impartially.  Hume's  not 
able  example  of  critical  scholarship  had  not  yet  been 
adopted  into  the  literary  thought  of  the  readers  of 
history.  We  were  all  partisans  of  our  own  cause  in  the 
contest  with  Great  Britain  and,  whether  we  wished  to 
know  its  simple  history  or  to  read  the  biographies  of 
its  leaders,  we  demanded  narratives  that  stimulated 
self-satisfaction. 

Another  field  in  which  historians  wrote  in  this  period 
was  state  histories.  Colonies  had  developed  into  states 
and  hopes  for  their  future  ran  high.  Should  not  the 
stories  of  the  states  in  their  early  stages  of  growth  be 
written  down?  Local  pride  asserted  itself,  and  the 
result  was  several  works,  as  Belknap's  "History  of 
New  Hampshire"  (3  vols.,  1784,  1792),  Proud's  "His 
tory  of  Pennsylvania  from  1681  till  after  the  Year 
1742"  (2  vols.,  1797,  1798),  Minot's  continuation  of 
Hutchinson's  history  of  Massachusetts  (2  vols.,  1798, 
1803)  and  his  "History  of  the  Insurrection  in  Massa 
chusetts"  (1788),  and  Trumbull's  "History  of  Con 
necticut"  (2  vols.,  1818).  All  these  books  were  well 


16  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

written  and  have  maintained  places  in  our  historical 
literature  to  this  day.  Of  Proud  and  Belknap  more 
will  be  said  later  on.  There  were,  also,  three  histories 
of  Southern  states  originating  in  this  impulse;  but 
they  were,  unfortunately,  less  respectable  than  those 
already  mentioned.  They  were  :  Dr.  Ramsay's  "His 
tory  of  South  Carolina"  (2  vols.,  1809),  Burk's  "His 
tory  of  Virginia"  (3  vols.,  1804, 1805),  and  Dr.  William 
son's  "History  of  North  Carolina"  (2  vols.,  1812). 
These  writers  had  more  zeal  than  industry  and  were 
guilty  of  gross  neglect  of  the  sources  of  information. 

Robert  Proud  has  for  me  a  pathetic  interest.  He 
was  one  of  the  first  Americans  to  combine  the  func 
tions  of  historian  and  schoolmaster.1  He  was  very  poor 
and  struggled  hard  against  straitened  circumstances, 
producing  at  the  end  a  book  which  satisfies  many  of  the 
qualifications  of  the  modern  school  of  history.  He  was 
born  in  Yorkshire,  England,  May  10,  1728,  and  by 
hard  study  secured  a  good  preliminary  education  in 
the  local  schools.  He  fell  under  the  influence  of  the 
Yorkshire  Quakers  and  when  he  came  of  age  settled 
in  London  as  tutor  of  the  two  sons  of  a  prominent 
Quaker.  Being  a  thoughtful  man  he  took  up  the  study 
of  medicine,  but  gave  it  up  when  he  observed  that 
most  of  the  diseases  a  physician  had  to  treat  were 
the  results  of  vice.  Essentially  moral,  he  shrank 
from  a  life  in  which  he  must  deal  with  those  who 
violated  moral  laws. 

1  William  Stith  was  also  a  schoolmaster. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  17 

In  1759  he  arrived  in  Philadelphia,  where  his  em 
ployment  was  uncertain  for  a  time.  He  was  a  protege 
of  Anthony  Benezet.1  But  in  1761  he  became  a  teacher 
of  Greek  and  Latin  in  an  academy  then  just  founded  by 
the  Friends.  When  the  revolution  was  about  to  begin 
he  became  a  merchant ;  but  as  he  was  a  tory,  it  was  an 
unlucky  venture,  for  the  whigs  would  not  trade  with 
him.  After  the  war  he  again  became  a  pedagogue, 
and  remained  one  until  1791,  when  he  gave  up  teaching 
to  complete  his  history. 

Robert  Proud  was  a  reticent  man  and  has  left  few 
memorials  of  his  life.  It  is  impossible  to  say  when  and 
how  he  began  to  write  history,  but  it  is  certain  that  he 
was  collecting  materials  for  such  a  task  soon  after  his 
arrival  in  the  colony.  Considerable  progress  had  been 
made  when  the  war  began,  but  the  work  was  laid  aside 
because  the  author  saw  that  it  was  no  time  for  the 
people  to  think  about  their  history.  Six  years  after 
work  was  resumed,  the  first  volume  was  published  in 
1797,  the  second  followed  in  1798. 

In  colonial  days  Philadelphia  was  noted  for  its 
progress  in  science;  but  in  "polite  and  elegant"  litera 
ture,  its  position  was  below  that  of  Boston.  From 
his  surroundings  Proud  could  have  got  little  stimulus. 

1  Hazard  wrote  in  1784  :  "Yes,  honest  Anthony  Benezet  is  dead,  and  in 
my  opinion  this  State  lost  one  of  her  most  valuable  citizens  when  he  died. 
I  believe  no  man  ever  died  here  who  was  more  universally  or  more  justly 
beloved :  he  was  truly  a  Friend  who  embraced  all  mankind  in  the  arms  of 
his  benevolence."  "Belknap  Papers,"  II,  356  ("Coll."  Mass.  Histl.  Soc., 
Ser.  V,  Vol.  II). 


18  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Indeed,  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  cannot  be  said  to 
have  shown  great  interest  in  the  writing  of  its  own 
history.  Populous  and  wealthy  as  it  is,  it  can  be 
asserted  that  the  book  written  by  Robert  Proud,  a 
poor  schoolmaster  who  struggled  hard  against  an  in 
different  public  attitude,  is  the  best  in  scholarship 
and  appreciation  of  the  task  before  the  writer  that  has 
yet  been  produced.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  book 
has  no  serious  faults :  the  style  is  heavy  and  lacking  in 
proportion,  and  many  things  are  ignored  which  a 
modern  historian  would  treat;  but  there  is  an  abun 
dance  of  accurate  statement,  with  some  valuable  docu 
ments  and  every  mark  of  sincerity  and  industry.  It 
was  a  drab  book,  too  colorless  even  for  the  Quakers 
themselves.  The  author's  returns  for  his  labor  were 
so  small  that  he  repudiated  in  disgust  the  career  of 
historian,  leaving  incomplete  the  narrative,  which  the 
end  of  the  second  volume  interrupted  at  the  year  1742. 

3.     Popular  Historical  Writers 

From  books  like  Proud's  let  us  now  turn  to  a  class 
of  writings  that  posterity  treats  with  too  much  con 
tempt, —  if  posterity  would  understand  how  history 
writing  has  developed  in  this  democratic  country.  I 
refer  to  some  popular  books,  slight  things  in  them 
selves,  but  satisfactory  to  the  peo*ple  who  lived  when 
they  were  published. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  our  revolution  was  unlike 
that  of  the  French  in  its  effect  on  literature  :  the  com- 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  19 

parison  is  unjust  to  us.  In  France  we  have  to  do  with 
an  old  and  highly  civilized  nation  whose  natural  forces, 
long  kept  down  by  outward  social  forms,  burst  forth 
into  great  activity  when  the  old  order  was  changed. 
In  the  United  States  society  was  new.  The  majority- 
of  the  people  who  in  1776  took  hold  of  the  reins  of  gov 
ernment  were  those  whose  ancestors  came  to  the 
country  two  generations  earlier  in  humble  stations. 
They  had  been  left  to  wrestle  with  the  ruder  problems 
of  nature,  such  as  clearing  the  land,  building  roads, 
amassing  fortunes,  and  creating  the  elementary  pro 
cesses  of  self-government.  They  were  in  no  condition 
to  take  up  the  literary  and  artistic  life.  They  liked 
their  own  history,  but  their  taste  was  not  discriminat 
ing  ;  and  while  a  few  scholarly  men  wrote  some  serious 
books  for  the  small  class  of  men  who  could  appreciate 
them,  the  mass  of  the  people  demanded  something  far 
less  respectable.  To  satisfy  them  was  created  a  class 
of  books,  widely  read  at  the  time,  which  to-day  we 
throw  aside  as  rubbish. 

Of  them  the  most  notable  were  books  written  by 
Mason  Locke  Weems,  who  began  life  as  rector  of  a 
parish  in  Maryland.  It  was  not  the  profession  for 
which  nature  had  fitted  him.  In  a  later  phase  of  our 
society  he  might  have  become  a  successful  writer  of 
short  stories,  but  there  was  no  career  for  a  man  in  that 
field  when  he  came  upon  the  stage.  Parson  he  was  by 
mere  force  of  convention.  It  took  little  time  to  show 
that  he  was  not  suited  for  his  calling,  and  he  became  a 


20  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

writer  of  religious  tracts  and  popular  biography.  His 
first  tract,  "Onania,"  seems  to  have  created  trouble  for 
him.  It  wasuiot  thought  becoming  in  a  clergyman  to 
write  such  a  thing.  In  1799  he  wrote  another,  "The 
Philanthropist,"  circulating  them  both  in  his  own 
parish  and  in  nearby  regions.  Without  a  regular  sta 
tion  he  now  began  a  series  of  journeys  that  took  him 
from  Maryland  to  Georgia,  selling  his  own  and  other 
books,  and  preaching  where  he  got  an  opportunity. 
He  was  a  curious  combination  of  preacher  and  buffoon, 
a  fiddler  for  a  country  dance  or  a  minister  preaching  in 
any  church,  chapel,  country-house,  tavern,  or  bar-room 
that  he  came  across.  His  facile  wit,  vigorous  figures, 
and  rather  coarse  illustrations  made  him  popular  with 
a  class  of  people  who  nearly  a  century  later  were  to 
find  attractive  the  sermons  of  some  of  our  unconven 
tional  evangelists.  Discovering  the  extent  of  his 
power  in  this  field,  he  seems  to  have  resolved  to 
make  the  most  of  it.  Some  of  his  tracts  had  very  large 
sales.  Among  them  we  find  such  suggestive  titles  as 
"The  Bad  Wife's  Looking-Glass,"  "God's  Revenge 
against  Murder,"  "God's  Revenge  against  Adultery," 
"The  Drunkard's  Looking-Glass,"  and  "Hymen's  Re 
cruiting  Sergeant,  or^the  Matrimonial  Tat-too  for  old 
Bachelors."  These  titles  were  evidently  employed  to 
secure  the  attention  of  a  rough  and  ready  people,  the 
middle  and  lower  class  of  society  in  the  South.  Read 
ing  the  tracts  themselves  we  find  that  they  do  not  con 
tain  such  extreme  matter  as  we  might  expect.  No 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  21 

one  knew  better  than  Weems  how  to  get  the  hearing  of 
the  people  whom  he  wished  to  reach,  an  art  which 
many  historians  of  greater  ability  may  well  study  in 
his  pages. 

Weems's  purpose  was  to  make  money  and  to  teach 
morality.  Probably  he  realized  that  the  people  to 
whom  he  appealed  liked  nothing  more  than  to  be 
preached  to.  This  purpose  found  free  expression  in 
his  biographies,  the  first  of  which  was  a  "Life  of  Wash 
ington,"  published  in  1800,  within  a  year  after  the 
death  of  the  first  president.  The  work  was  poor  at 
best,  but  the  first  edition  was  very  trivial.  In  1804  he 
brought  it  out  in  a  larger  form,  and  incorporated  in  it 
the  well  known  stories  of  the  cherry  tree  and  the 
cabbage-bed.  The  book  was  well  suited  to  reach  the 
class  to  which  he  catered,  and  its  sale  was  enormous. 
Along  every  road  in  the  country  it  was  owned  and 
read  in  the  farm-houses.  No  one  knows  how  many 
were  sold,  but  the  number  of  editions  is  estimated  at 
from  forty  to  seventy.  It  was  followed  by  biographies 
of  Francis  Marion,  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  William 
Penn.  All  were  full  of  inaccuracies.  In  fact,  no 
writer  of  biography  in  America  ever  drew  more  freely 
on  his  imagination  in  composing  his  books.  What  he 
did  not  know  he  invented,  if  it  seemed  good  to  him.  His 
works  are  utterly  worthless  as  books  of  fact ;  but  he 
drew  vivid  pictures  of  what  he  thought  Washington, 
Franklin,  and  Marion  ought  to  be.  He  sought  in  his 
biographies  to  make  virtue  attractive,  to  create  real 


22  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

respect  for  the  heroes  of  the  revolution  and  to  make 
men  value  the  liberties  of  Americans.  Probably  he 
succeeded. 

Weems  was  adjusted  to  a  stage  of  our  literary  devel 
opment  now  happily  in  the  past.  To  praise  him  for 
his  good  qualities  can  no  longer  incite  the  younger  his 
torians  to  imitate  his  defects.  The  present  age  is 
too  well  convinced  of  the  need  of  good  judgment  and 
accurate  statement  in  writing  historical  narratives  to 
make  it  probable  that  any  writer  would  assume  to 
offer  it  such  a  compound  of  truth  and  fiction  as 
Weems  offered  his  readers  a  hundred  years  ago.  We 
run  no  risk,  therefore,  in  admitting  that  he  had  a  re 
markable  faculty  of  reaching  the  popular  mind  and 
forming  the  ideals  of  a  class  who  otherwise  would  have 
remained  ignorant  of  certain  historical  characters. 

In  the  class  of  popular  works  designed  to  teach  his 
tory  we  must  rank  Washington  Irving' s  "History  of 
New  York  from  the  beginning  of  the  World  to  the  End 
of  the  Dutch  Dynasty,  by  Diedrich  Knickerbocker," 
the  first  edition  of  which  appeared  in  1809.  It  was 
confessedly  a  burlesque,  but  it  was  written  with  such 
a  clear  insight  into  the  character  of  the  Dutch  settlers 
that  it  gave  its  readers  a  fairly  acceptable  impression 
of  their  lives  and  mental  attitude.  It  was  widely  read 
and  stimulated  interest  in  real  history.  It  was  a  fore 
cast  of  Irving' s  powers  in  a  better  sort  of  history,  a 
prophecy  which  he  redeemed  in  such  works  as  "The 
History  of  the  Life  and  Voyages  of  Columbus"  (3  vols., 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  23 

1828),  the  "Conquest  of  Granada"  (1829),  "The  Al- 
hambra"  (1832),  the  "Voyages  of  the  Companions  of 
Columbus"  (1831),  "Astoria"  (2  vols.,  1836),  the 
"Adventures  of  Captain  Bonneville"  (1837),  "Ma 
homet  and  his  Successors"  (1849),  and  the  "Life  of 
Washington"  (5  vols.,  1855-1859).  His  clear  and 
well-proportioned  narrative,  coupled  with  enough  ac 
curacy  to  satisfy  the  age  in  which  he  wrote,  made  him 
a  force  for  good  historical  interest  in  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 

Of  course,  he  far  surpassed  Weems  in  literary  ability. 
Irving  appealed  to  men  of  culture,  Weems  to  men  of 
untutored  minds.  Between  the  two  stands  a  New 
England  woman,  Mrs.  Mercy  Otis  Warren,  sister  of 
James  Otis,  and  author  of  the  most  popular  book  in 
the  field  of  American  history  in  her  own  section.  Her 
"History  of  the  American  Revolution"  (3  vols.,  1805) 
was  loosely  written,  but  it  appealed  to  the  taste  of  a 
people  who  were  fairly  well  schooled  in  sober  thinking 
by  the  village  ministers  and  the  public  schools  of  the 
day.  It  was  enlivened  by  biographical  sketches,  but 
was  wholly  uncritical. 

We  should  not  ignore  the  popular  historians,  if  we 
wish  to  understand  the  growth  of  history.  They  show 
us  in  what  manner  popular  taste  has  limited  the  per 
formance  of  the  historian.  In  Weems  we  have  it 
working  in  its  worst  form.  Books  like  his  in  the 
present  day  could  not  have  vogue  in  any  part  of  the 
country.  Washington  Irving,  on  the  contrary,  repre- 


£4  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

sents  popular  history  at  its  highest  stage.  Some  of 
his  books  will  be  read  years  hence  for  their  clear  and 
well-proportioned  statement.  History  as  a  literary  art 
must  ever  have  a  vital  relation  with  the  book-buying 
public,  and  the  wise  historian  will  give  a  portion  of  his 
energy  to  discovering  how  he  may  reach  the  reader. 

4.   Jeremy  Belknap  and  Ebenezer  Hazard 

Within  the  period  just  after  the  revolution  we  find 
two  men  with  so  much  of  the  modern  spirit  in  them 
that  they  deserve  separate  and  large  notice.  One  was 
an  industrious  and  impartial  gatherer  of  information 
who  presented  it  to  his  readers  with  a  fine  sense  of  pro 
portion  and  ease  of  expression.  The  other  was  a  col 
lector  of  historical  documents  at  the  time  when  there 
was  nothing  to  encourage  him  in  the  task  but  his  own 
devotion  to  history.  Though  one  was  born  in  Boston 
and  the  other  in  Philadelphia,  and  one  graduated  at 
Harvard  and  the  other  at  Princeton,  and  though  they 
lived  remote  from  one  another,  they  were  drawn  to 
gether  by  similarity  of  taste,  supported  one  another  in 
their  individual  efforts,  and  left  a  correspondence  which 
throws  much  light  on  the  conditions  under  which  his 
torians  worked  in  their  day. 

In  the  beginning  I  will  confess  that  I  make  no  claim 
that  Hazard  is  of  first  rank  among  the  historians. 
But  he  had  the  modern  spirit,  and  the  collection  of 
documents  he  published  was  made  on  the  best  prin 
ciples.  It  came  to  an  untimely  suspension,  like  Stith's 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  25 

"History  of  Virginia,"  because  the  public  would  not 
buy  it.  But  it  remained  an  excellent  example  for 
future  scholars,  and  by  virtue  of  its  priority  it  gives 
the  editor  the  first  place  in  a  long  line  of  scholarly 
editors  and  compilers.  Although  he  repudiated  litera 
ture  and  became  a  successful  business  man  in  Phila 
delphia,  he  deserves  to  have  his  work  in  his  preferred 
field  commemorated  in  a  sketch  like  this. 

Jeremy  Belknap  was  born  in  Boston,  June  4,  1744. 
His  father  dressed  leather  and  sold  furs :  his  mother 
was  a  niece  of  the  celebrated  Boston  minister,  Matthew 
Byles.  They  were  highly  esteemed  in  the  town,  and 
though  poor  were  able  to  send  their  son  to  Harvard, 
where  he  graduated  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  an  age  at 
which  our  own  young  men  are  still  in  the  Freshman 
Class.  His  parents  desired  him  to  preach,  but  he  held 
of?  for  some  time  because  he  did  not  feel  a  call  for  the 
ministry.  At  last  he  felt  "a  hope  in  Christ,"  as  he  put 
it,  and  in  1766  became  assistant  pastor  of  the  church 
in  Dover,  New  Hampshire.  He  had  one  hundred 
pounds  a  year  for  salary  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  additional  in  lieu  of  a  house  and  garden.  In 
1767  he  married  Ruth  Eliot,  daughter  of  a  prosperous 
Boston  bookseller. 

Belknap  remained  at  Dover  as  assistant  pastor  and 
pastor  until  1786.  He  was  not  a  famous  preacher  and 
he  was  disposed  to  make  more  of  conversion  than  some 
of  his  parishioners  liked.  Eventually  he  found  the 
congregation  divided  and  his  salary  in  arrears.  More- 


26  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

over,  the  colonial  currency  was  depreciated,  and  alto 
gether  his  financial  situation  was  distressing.  He 
fought  valiantly  for  his  rights,  and  at  last  a  compro 
mise  was  made  by  which  he  received  a  note  for  the 
arrears,  signed  on  behalf  of  the  congregation  by  one  of 
his  own  supporters.  He  was  in  debt  for  a  house  he  had 
built  and  assigned  this  note  in  payment  of  the  obliga 
tion.  When  it  was  due  the  creditor  could  not  collect 
and  had  the  guarantor  arrested  for  debt.  To  save  his 
friend  Belknap  assumed  responsibility  for  the  note  but 
proceeded  to  bring  matters  to  an  issue  with  his  con 
gregation.  He  preached  them  a  sermon  in  which  his 
whole  experience  was  recounted  and  closed  with  the 
statement  that  he  released  the  church  from  all  it  owed 
him,  claiming  on  his  own  part  that  he  considered  him 
self  released  from  his  obligation  to  serve  them.  The 
agreement  between  a  minister  and  congregation  in 
early  New  England  was  a  two-sided  bargain  and  each 
was  understood  to  have  a  sort  of  property  right  against 
the  other.  When  a  minister  wished  to  leave  it  was  not 
a  mere  matter  of  resigning :  he  must  have  a  voluntary 
discharge  of  his  obligation  to  serve. 

Belknap  did  not  venture  to  leave  outright.  He  re 
mained  for  the  time,  but  announced  that  it  was  on  a 
voluntary  basis.  Had  he  left  outright,  he  would  have 
been  charged  with  breach  of  contract.  Now  followed 
some  cross  playing,  the  pastor  fencing  well.  The  con 
gregation  finally  asked  if  he  would  renew  his  contract 
if  paid  up  in  full  and  given  a  release.  He  replied 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  27 

that  he  would  tell  them  what  he  would  do  after  the 
contract  was  released;  and  they  were  thus  finally 
brought  to  hand  him  his  discharge.  It  was  a  mo 
ment  of  triumph  for  him,  and  he  sent  them  a  letter  in 
which  was  a  plain  piece  of  his  mind.  It  closed  with 
the  announcement  that  he  would  leave  the  parish. 
Belknap's  position  was  now  serious.  He  had  six 
children  and  no  other  dependence  for  their  support 
than  his  own  efforts.  Temporary  engagements  at  va 
rious  churches  afforded  a  slender  income  for  a  few 
months  while  friends  formed  plans  for  his  future.  One 
of  them  was  that  he  should  establish  a  classical  school 
in  Boston,  a  scheme  which  he  rejected  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  not  suited  to  the  life  of  a  pedagogue. 
Another  was  to  move  to  Philadelphia  and  assume  the 
editorship  of  the  Columbian  Magazine,  the  position  to 
pay  him  a  salary  of  one  hundred  pounds  a  year  with 
twenty  pounds  additional  to  prepare  the  historical  sec 
tion  of  an  "Annual  Register"  which  Matthew  Carey 
proposed  to  establish.  He  might  have  accepted  this 
offer,  made  through  the  kind  offices  of  his  friend 
Hazard ;  but  before  it  reached  him  he  had  accepted  a 
call  to  become  the  pastor  of  the  Federal  Street  church 
in  Boston.  It  was  early  in  1787  that  he  settled  in  his 
new  field  of  labor,  where  he  was  to  spend  the  rest  of 
his  life.  It  was  a  quiet  church,  supporting  its  pastor 
in  comfort  and  allowing  him  time  for  the  literary  duties 
for  which  he  was  well  fitted.  But  it  demanded  most 
of  his  time,  and  it  is  interesting  to  speculate  on  the  in- 


28  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

fluence  he  might  have  exerted  on  letters  if  he  had  been 
free  to  give  all  his  time  to  their  pursuit. 

Belknap's  fondness  for  history  was  manifested  in  his 
early  youth.  While  at  college  he  wrote  in  his  common 
place  book  this  sentence  showing  his  early  bent : 
"There  are  required  so  many  qualifications  and  accom 
plishments  in  an  Historian,  and  so  much  care  and 
niceness  in  writing  an  history  that  some  have  reckoned 
it  one  of  the  most  difficult  labors  human  nature  is  capable 
of."  At  Dover  he  came  into  contact  with  Governor 
Wentworth,  of  New  Hampshire,  who  allowed  him 
access  to  valuable  historical  papers.  The  governor 
seems  to  have  felt  that  he  had  put  the  young  minister 
under  obligations  and  asked  him  to  assume  the  educa 
tion  of  a  favorite  nephew  at  liberal  compensation,  say 
ing  that  the  pressure  of  public  business  made  it  impos 
sible  for  him  to  conduct  the  task  himself.  To  him 
Belknap  sent  a  polite  but  spirited  refusal,  saying  :  "If, 
to  use  your  Excellency's  words,  you  'find  the  utter 
impossibility  of  your  having  sufficient  time  to  under 
take  so  important  and  interesting  a  charge'  by  reason 
of  the  public  business  with  which  our  gracious  sov 
ereign  hath  entrusted  your  Excellency,  I  may  justly 
hope  to  stand  excused  in  your  view  from  engaging  in 
that  which  would  in  any  measure  hinder  me  from 
faithfully  discharging  the  trust  committed  to  me  by 
the  Supreme  Ruler."  This  was  said  in  1770,  but  it 
was  worthy  of  the  spirit  of  1776,  which  Belknap  shared 
as  fully  as  any  other  New  Englander. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  29 

His  sense  of  loyalty  to  his  profession  was  soon  at 
tacked  from  another  quarter.  To  Captain  Waldron,  a 
friend  on  whose  judgment  he  relied,  he  wrote  in  1772 : 
"You  cannot  help  having  observed  in  me  an  inquisi 
tive  disposition  in  historical  matters.  I  find  it  so 
strong  and  powerful,  and  withal  so  increasing  with  my 
opportunities  for  gratifying  it,  that  it  has  become  a 
question  with  me,  whether  I  might  not  freely  indulge 
it,  with  a  view  to  the  benefit  of  my  fellow  men,  as  well 
as  for  my  own  improvement.  As  it  is  natural  for  us 
to  inquire  into  the  ancient  state  and  circumstances  of 
the  place  of  our  abode,  and  to  entertain  a  peculiar  fond 
ness  for  such  inquiries  in  preference  to  more  foreign 
matters,  so  I  have  applied  myself  in  some  leisure  hours 
(making  it  of  late  my  principal  amusement)  to  learn 
what  I  can  from  printed  books  and  manuscripts,  and 
the  information  of  aged  and  intelligent  persons,  of  the 
former  state  and  affairs  of  this  town  and  province." 
Captain  Waldron's  reply  is  not  preserved,  but  we  know 
his  correspondent  did  not  relinquish  his  interest  in 
local  history. 

He  took  great  interest  in  the  measures  of  the  colo 
nists  against  the  policy  of  Great  Britain  restricting 
action  of  the  colonies.  He  wrote  an  appeal  to  the 
inhabitants  of  New  Hampshire  in  behalf  of  the  town 
of  Boston,  when  it  began  to  feel  the  effects  of  the 
operation  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill.  In  the  same  year, 
1774,  he  wrote  a  stinging  address  to  British  soldiers 
then  in  Boston.  "Gentlemen,  I  pity  you,"  he  ex- 


30  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

claimed.  "What  have  you  done  to  deserve  such  dis 
grace  ?  You  are  sent  over  into  America  for  the  mean 
est  and  basest  purposes;  to  terrify  the  wretched  in 
habitants  of  this  oppressed  town  with  the  apprehension 
of  being  murdered  in  the  streets  in  some  insignificant 
night  brawl,  and  to  check  that  noble  spirit  which  once 
animated  their  predecessors  to  brave  every  danger,  to 
secure  liberty  and  peace  to  their  posterity,  and  which 
still  breathes  in  our  present  exertions  to  the  same 
worthy  and  virtuous  purposes."  When  news  of  the 
battle  of  Lexington  reached  him  he  was  at  the  ferry 
midway  between  Dover  and  Portsmouth.  Without  a 
moment's  delay  he  set  out  for  Boston  to  get  his  aged 
parents  out  of  the  town  before  the  lines  were  estab 
lished  around  it.  He  accomplished  his  object  with 
some  difficulty,  and  his  parents  spent  the  rest  of  their 
days  in  his  home  at  Dover. 

Before  the  war  was  over  he  had  ample  time  to  carry 
forward  his  studies  in  local  history;  and  in  1784  he 
published  in  Philadelphia,  at  his  own  expense,  the  first 
volume  of  his  "History  of  New  Hampshire."  In  the 
preface  he  tells  how  the  author  came  to  undertake  his 
task.  "Having  met  with  some  valuable  manuscripts 
which  were  but  little  known,  he  began  to  extract  and 
methodize  the  principal  things  in  them ;  and  this  em 
ployment  was  (to  speak  in  the  style  of  a  celebrated 
modern  author)  his  'hobby-horse.'  The  work,  crude 
as  it  was,  being  communicated  to  some  gentlemen,  to 
whose  judgment  he  paid  much  deference,  he  was  per- 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  31 

suaded  and  encouraged  to  go  on  with  his  collection, 
until  the  thing  became  generally  known,  and  a  publica 
tion  could  not  decently  be  refused."  The  sales  of  the 
book  were  so  poor  that  Belknap  felt  little  encourage 
ment  to  go  on  with  it ;  but  after  he  moved  to  Boston  he 
took  it  up  again,  and  published  a  second  volume  in 
1791  and  a  third  in  1792. 

Of  this  book  de  Tocqueville  said:  "The  reader  of 
Belknap  will  find  more  general  ideas  and  more  strength 
of  thought,  than  are  to  be  met  with  in  any  other 
American  historians,  even  to  the  present  day."  The 
book,  in  fact,  remains  to-day  one  of  the  best  state  his 
tories  we  have.  It  has  both  form  and  matter,  and  it 
is  written  in  thorough  dependence  on  original  authori 
ties.  Washington,  when  he  met  the  author,  said:  "I 
am  indebted  to  you,  sir,  for  the  'History  of  New  Hamp 
shire,'  and  it  has  given  me  great  pleasure." 

The  publication  of  the  history  was  carefully  super 
vised  by  Hazard,  who  had  influence  in  Philadelphia. 
By  the  same  means  Belknap  was  invited  to  become  a 
contributor  to  the  Columbian  Magazine,  then  the  best 
of  such  publications  in  the  United  States,  and  in  this 
periodical  appeared  some  of  his  best  pieces.  Among 
them  was  a  series  of  satirical  letters,  afterwards,  pub 
lished  with  the  title,  "The  Foresters,  an  American 
Tale,  being  a  sequel  to  the  History  of  John  Bull  the 
Clothier."  That  he  could  so  well  hit  off  the  foibles 
of  each  side  of  an  ancient  controversy,  shows  his  im 
partiality  and  his  fitness  for  higher  things  than  the 


32  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

existing  state  of  literature  warranted  in  our  new  coun 
try.  To  illustrate  the  character  of  the  satire  a  cita 
tion  is  made  here  from  the  third  letter,  which  under 
takes  to  show  how  "John  Codline  quarrels  with  Roger 
Carrier,  and  turns  him  out  of  doors."  "Codline"  was 
made  to  stand  for  the  orthodox  Puritan,  and  the  name 
suggests  the  figure  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  while 
"Roger  Carrier"  represents  the  founder  of  Providence 
Plantation.  Says  the  satirist : 

"It  happened  that  Roger  had  taken  a  fancy  to  dip  his  head 
into  water,  as  the  most  effectual  way  of  washing  his  face,  and 
thought  it  could  not  be  made  so  clean  in  any  other  way.  John, 
who  used  the  common  way  of  taking  water  in  his  hand  to  wash 
his  face,  was  displeased  with  Roger's  innovation,  and  remonstrated 
against  it.  The  remonstrance  had  no  other  effect  than  to  fix 
Roger's  opinion  more  firmly;  and  as  a  further  improvement  on 
his  plan,  he  pretended  that  no  person  ought  to  have  his  face  washed 
till  he  was  capable  of  doing  it  himself,  without  any  assistance 
from  his  parents.  John  was  out  of  patience  with  this  addition, 
and  plumply  told  him  that,  if  he  did  not  reform  his  principles  and 
practice,  he  would  fine  him,  or  flog  him,  or  kick  him  out  of  doors. 
These  threats  put  Roger  on  inventing  other  odd  and  whimsical 
opinions.  He  took  offence  at  the  letter  X,  and  would  have  it 
expunged  from  the  alphabet,  because  it  was  the  shape  of  a  cross, 
and  had  a  tendency  to  produce  Popery.  He  would  not  do  his 
duty  at  a  military  muster,  because  there  was  X  in  the  colors. 
After  a  while  he  began  to  scruple  the  lawfulness  of  bearing  arms 
and  killing  wild  beasts.  But  poor  fellow !  —  the  worst  of  all  was, 
that  being  seized  with  a  shaking-palsey,  which  affected  every  limb 
and  joint  of  him,  his  speech  was  so  altered  that  he  was  unable  to 
pronounce  certain  letters  and  syllables  as  he  had  been  used  to  do. 
These  oddities  and  defects  rendered  him  more  and  more  disagree 
able  to  his  old  friend,  who,  however,  kept  his  temper  as  well  as  he 
could,  till  one  day,  as  John  was  saying  a  long  grace  over  his  meat 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  33 

Roger  kept  his  hat  on  the  whole  time.  As  soon  as  the  ceremony 
was  over  John  took  up  a  case-knife  from  the  table,  and  gave  Roger 
a  blow  on  the  ear  with  the  broad  side  of  it;  then  with  a  quick, 
rising  stroke  turned  off  his  hat.  Roger  said  nothing,  but,  taking 
up  his  hat,  put  it  on  again ;  at  which  John  broke  out  into  such  a 
passionate  speech  as  this  :  *  You  impudent  scoundrel !  is  it  come  to 
this?  Have  I  not  borne  with  your  whims  and  fidgets  these 
many  years,  and  yet  they  grow  upon  you?  Have  I  not  talked 
with  you  time  after  time,  and  proved  to  you  as  plain  as  the  nose 
in  your  face,  that  your  notions  are  wrong?  Have  I  not  ordered 
you  to  leave  them  off,  and  warned  you  of  the  consequences ;  and 
yet  you  have  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse  ?  You  began  with  dipping 
your  head  into  water,  and  would  have  all  the  family  do  the  same, 
pretending  there  was  no  other  way  of  washing  the  face.  You 
would  have  had  the  children  go  dirty  all  their  days,  under  pretense 
that  they  were  not  able  to  wash  their  own  faces,  and  so  they  must 
have  been  as  filthy  as  the  pigs  till  they  were  grown  up.  Then 
you  would  talk  your  own  balderdash  lingo,  thee  and  thou,  and  nan 
forsooth;  and  now  you  must  keep  your  hat  on  when  I  am  at  my 
devotions ;  and  I  suppose  would  be  glad  to  have  the  whole  family 
do  the  same !  There  is  no  bearing  with  you  any  longer ;  so  now, 
hear  me,  I  give  you  fair  warning  :  if  you  don't  mend  your  manners, 
and  retract  your  errors,  and  promise  reformation,  I'll  kick  you 
out  of  the  house.  I'll  have  no  such  refractory  fellows  here.  I 
came  into  this  forest  for  reformation,  and  reformation  I  will  have.' 

"'Friend  John',  said  Roger,  'dost  not  thou  remember,  when 
thou  and  I  lived  together  in  friend  Bull's  family,  how  hard  thou 
didst  think  it  to  be  compelled  to  look  on  thy  book  all  the  time  that 
the  hooded  chaplain  was  reading  the  prayers,  and  how  many 
knocks  and  thumps  thou  and  I  had  for  offering  to  use  our  liberty, 
which  we  thought  we  had  a  right  to  do?  Didst  thou  not  come 
hitherunto  for  the  sake  of  enjoying  thy  liberty?  and  did  not  I 
come  to  enjoy  mine  ?  Wherefore,  then,  dost  thou  assume  to 
deprive  me  of  the  right  which  thou  claimest  for  thyself  ? ' 

'"Don't  tell  me',  answered  John,  'of  right  and  of  liberty; 
you  have  as  much  liberty  as  any  man  ought  to  have.  You  have 
liberty  to  do  right,  and  no  man  ought  to  have  liberty  to  do  wrong.' 
D 


34  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

"'Who  is  to  be  judge',  replied  Roger,  'of  what  is  right  or 
what  is  wrong?  Ought  not  I  to  judge  for  myself?  Or  thinkest 
thou  it  is  thy  place  to  judge  for  me  ? ' 

"'Who  is  judge?'  said  John,  'why,  the  book  is  to  judge; 
and  I  have  proved  by  the  book  over  and  over  again,  that  you  are 
wrong;  and  therefore  you  are  wrong,  and  you  have  no  liberty  to 
do  anything  but  what  is  right.' 

"'But,  friend  John',  said  Roger,  'who  is  to  judge  whether  thou 
hast  proved  my  opinions  or  conduct  to  be  wrong  —  thou  or  I  ? ' 

"'Come,  come',  said  John,  'not  so  close,  neither;  none  of  your 
idle  distinctions.  I  say  you  are  in  the  wrong;  I  have  proved  it, 
and  you  know  it.  You  have  sinned  against  your  own  conscience, 
and  therefore  you  deserve  to  be  cut  off  as  an  incorrigible  heretic.' 

"'How  dost  thou  know',  said  Roger,  'that  I  have  sinned  against 
my  own  conscience  ?  Canst  thou  search  the  heart  ?  ' 

"At  this  John  was  so  enraged  that  he  gave  him  a  smart  kick 
and  bade  him  begone  out  of  his  house,  and  off  his  lands,  and  called 
after  him  to  tell  him,  that,  if  ever  he  should  catch  him  there  again 
he  would  knock  his  brains  out." 

When  we  read  John's  speeches  we  are  apt  to  feel  that 
he  is  talking  sense ;  and  when  we  read  those  of  Roger, 
we  agree  that  he  is  right.  Probably  it  is  a  little  better 
to  say  that  Roger  was  generally  right  but  tiresome 
and  that  John  was  generally  wrong  but  sensible.  In 
these  days  the  average  reader  knows  so  little  about  the 
ancient  disputes  of  the  churches  that  the  majority  of 
intelligent  people  would  probably  fail  to  see  the  clever 
points  in  "The  Foresters" ;  but  such  was  not  the  case 
in  New  England  a  hundred  years  ago.  Belknap,  al 
though  a  minister,  was  also  a  literary  man ;  and  in  this 
satire  we  seem  to  see  the  latter  side  of  his  nature  mak 
ing  faces  at  his  black  coat,  uttering  the  jibes  he  cannot 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  35 

repress  for  the  life  of  him.  Had  he  followed  his  bent 
for  satire  in  a  calling  less  theological,  he  would  be 
down  in  the  text-books  of  to-day  as  one  of  our  prominent 
early  literary  men. 

But  Belknap  himself  would  have  disclaimed  the  title 
of  satirist,  preferring  that  of  historian.  In  his  re 
searches  among  documents  it  early  occurred  to  him 
that  a  collection  should  be  made  of  the  lives  of  dis 
tinguished  Americans,  a  thing  then  unattempted.  He 
began  to  collect  materials  for  such  a  work,  but  became 
discouraged  and  urged  Hazard  to  carry  out  the  plans 
he  had  outlined.  He  was,  he  said,  "confined,  as  Pope 
says,  'to  lead  the  life  of  a  cabbage,'  unable  to  stir  from 
the  spot  where  I  am  planted,"  and  he  thought  his 
friend  had  better  facilities  and  more  leisure  for  doing 
the  work.  Hazard,  however,  refused  to  take  it  up, 
since  he  had  a  larger  task  on  his  hands.  After  he  went 
to  Boston  to  live  Belknap  recurred  to  the  scheme, 
writing  the  sketches  which  appeared  in  two  volumes  in 
1794,  with  the  title,  "American  Biography."  The  per 
sons  treated  were  mostly  early  colonial  worthies  and 
explorers  of  the  American  continent.  In  view  of  the 
materials  available  and  the  standards  of  the  times,  the 
sketches  were  done  with  remarkable  success.  It  was 
on  Belknap's  foundation  that  Jared  Sparks,  a  genera 
tion  later,  laid  the  plans  for  his  popular  "Library  of 
American  Biography." 

It  was  through  the  many-sided  activity  of  Jeremy 
Belknap  that  our  oldest  existing  historical  society  came 


36  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

into  existence.  While  collecting  materials  for  his 
"History"  from  collections  in  private  hands,  he  was 
impressed  with  the  danger  that  these  collections  might 
be  swept  away  by  fire  or  lost  through  carelessness. 
The  loss  of  most  of  Prince's  library  in  the  Old  South 
Church  was  an  appealing  example  of  what  might 
happen  to  other  small  collections.  His  first  idea  to 
meet  the  danger  was  to  have  duplicate  copies  of  valu 
able  papers  and  keep  them  in  different  places,  and  this 
plan  seems  to  have  been  in  his  mind  when  he  moved  to 
Boston  in  1787.  He  soon  saw  fit  to  change  it  for  a 
society  with  a  great  collection  safely  kept.  He  secured 
the  co-operation  of  four  others,  William  Tudor,  Rev. 
John  Eliot,  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  all  of  Boston,  and 
James  Winthrop,  of  Cambridge.  In  1790  these  men 
and  five  others  held  preliminary  meetings  to  form  a 
general  plan  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 
January  24,  1791,  they  met  at  the  residence  of  William 
Tudor  in  the  first  regular  meeting.  After  adopting  a 
constitution  the  society  adjourned.  At  its  second  meet 
ing  each  member  handed  in  a  list  of  books,  pamphlets, 
and  manuscripts  he  was  willing  to  give  to  establish 
the  nucleus  of  the  collection  it  was  proposed  to  build 
up.  From  that  time  to  this  it  has  been  a  principle 
well  accepted  by  all  the  members  of  the  society  that 
they  are  to  build  up  the  collections  in  its  possession. 
At  first  the  membership  was  limited  to  thirty,  but  in 
1794,  when  the  legislature  granted  a  charter,  the  num 
ber  was  enlarged  to  sixty;  and  it  has  since  been  in- 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  37 

creased.  In  the  first  years  of  the  society's  existence, 
when  its  vitality  was  slight,  most  of  the  work  of  keep 
ing  it  going  fell  on  Belknap.  It  was  through  his  effort 
that  the  first  volume  of  its  "Collections"  appeared  in 
1792,  a  series  in  which  have  been  published  more 
original  and  valuable  materials  than  in  any  other  in 
the  United  States.  Of  all  Belknap  did  for  history  it  is 
probable  that  the  impetus  he  gave  to  found  the  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society  is  his  best  service. 

Ebenezer  Hazard  was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1744, 
and  died  in  the  same  city  in  1817.  His  father  was  well 
known  among  the  business  men  of  the  place  and  was 
able  to  send  the  boy  to  Princeton,  where  he  graduated 
in  1762,  the  same  year  that  Belknap  graduated  from 
Harvard.  He  settled  in  New  York,  where  he  became 
connected  with  a  firm  of  booksellers,  remaining  in  that 
business  until  1775.  He  was  an  ardent  supporter  of 
the  revolution,  and  in  1775  became  post-master  in 
New  York,  under  the  authority  of  the  committee  of 
safety.  The  arrival  of  the  British  army  on  Long 
Island  brought  him  an  order  immediately  to  "remove 
his  office  to  some  convenient  place  near  Dobb's  Ferry, 
till  further  orders."  The  command  was  obeyed  with 
alacrity.  In  1777  he  was  appointed  surveyor  of  the 
post  throughout  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States. 
In  1782  he  was  made  postmaster-general,  succeeding 
Richard  Bache,  who  had  followed  Benjamin  Franklin 
in  that  office.  In  this  position  he  remained  until  the 
government  under  the  federal  constitution  went  into 


38  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

operation.  He  would  have  been  pleased  to  continue 
under  that  regime,  but  he  was  put  aside  to  give 
place  to  a  man  who  had  more  political  friends  than 
he.  He  then  sought  other  government  employment 
and  disappointed  in  this  respect  retired  to  private 
life. 

It  was  while  he  was  surveyor  of  the  post  that  he 
began  to  collect  historical  materials.  July  11,  1778, 
he  petitioned  congress  for  their  patronage  in  making 
a  collection  of  American  State  Papers.  He  proposed 
to  visit  each  state  and  wished  aid  in  the  form  of 
recommendations  to  the  various  states,  so  that  he 
might  be  allowed  access  to  their  public  documents. 
The  petition  was  referred  to  a  committee  consisting  of 
Richard  Henry  Lee,  William  Duer,  and  Samuel  Adams, 
which  recommended  that  Hazard  be  allowed  to  have 
copies  of  papers  in  federal  offices  at  the  expense  of 
the  public  and  that  he  be  allowed  one  thousand  dollars 
for  making  copies.  The  report  was  adopted  by  con 
gress  ;  but  in  what  respect  the  sum  mentioned  was 
used  does  not  appear.1  While  surveyor  he  traveled 
much,  and  it  is  certain  that  he  used  his  leisure  while 
on  these  journeys  to  make  copies  of  records.  After 
he  retired  from  the  post  office  he  gave  himself  to  the 
preparation  of  these  documents  for  publication.  In 

1  See  Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress  (Library  of  Congress  edition), 
XI,  682,  705.  Also  "Belknap  Papers,"  I,  13  ("Colls."  Mass.  Histl.  Soc., 
Ser.  V,  Vol.  II).  Belknap  complained  that  the  states  did  not  furnish  him 
copies  of  manuscript  material,  as  suggested  by  congress,  and  that  he  had 
to  pay  for  all  he  got. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  39 

1792  he  brought  out  the  first  volume  of  his  "Historical 
Collections,"  and  a  second  in  1794.  In  the  first  of 
these  two  large  volumes  were  many  miscellaneous  docu 
ments  on  the  periods  of  discovery  and  early  coloniza 
tion,  and  in  the  second  were  the  records  of  the  New 
England  Confederation.  Although  superseded  by  later 
and  more  complete  collections,  Hazard's  documents 
were  for  the  time  excellently  selected  and  reproduced. 
He  began  with  the  purpose  of  carrying  his  work  into 
several  volumes ;  but  the  sale  of  the  two  which  were 
published  was  so  disappointing  that  he  gave  up  the 
enterprise.  He  then  embarked  in  the  insurance  busi 
ness,  in  Philadelphia,  in  which  he  attained  solid  pros 
perity  until  his  death  in  1817.  His  son,  Samuel 
Hazard,  published  the  "Register  of  Pennsylvania"  (16 
vols.)  and  other  valuable  collections. 

It  was  in  1779  that  the  correspondence  between 
Hazard  and  Jeremy  Belknap  began.  The  latter,  an 
chored  in  a  provincial  town,  looked  upon  the  much- 
traveled  Hazard  as  a  happy  exponent  of  the  life  of  the 
historical  scholar;  and  Hazard  recognized  in  the 
superior  mind  of  the  minister  an  attractive  kindred 
spirit.  They  wrote  frequent  letters,  each  pouring  out 
his  soul,  seeking  advice,  or  offering  aid  as  opportunity 
or  necessity  offered.  Both  men  were  interested  in 
what  at  that  time  was  called  science.  Unusual  stones 
were  exchanged  and  deposited  in  museums,  or  "cabi 
nets,"  as  the  term  of  the  day  ran.  For  example,  as 
bestos  excited  their  curiosity  much.  A  story  of  a 


40  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

musical  prodigy  in  England  who  could  play  the  organ 
at  three  years  of  age  was  written  down  and  sent  by 
Belknap  to  his  friend  as  a  thing  worth  noting.  Sibe 
rian  wheat  and  barley  aroused  much  interest  at  a  time 
when  most  intelligent  Americans  were  concerned  with 
the  introduction  into  their  own  country  of  all  kinds  of 
superior  plants  and  vegetables.  Hazard  was  able  to 
collect  newspapers  in  connection  with  the  post  office 
and  sent  many  of  them  to  Dover,  where  a  periodical 
from  a  distant  place  was  very  welcome. 

He  took  upon  himself  to  secure  the  apprenticeship  of 
Belknap's  oldest  son  to  Robert  Aitken,  whom  he  called 
the  best  printer  in  the  country.  About  the  same  time 
Hazard  made  arrangements  with  Aitken  to  do  the 
printing  and  binding  of  the  first  volume  of  the  "History 
of  New  Hampshire,"  and  circulated  subscription  lists 
in  its  behalf.  He  could  not  have  shown  more  interest 
in  the  project  if  he  had  been  the  author  himself.  The 
appearance  of  the  first  volume  gave  him  much  pleasure 
and  he  wrote  in  his  eagerness  urging  that  the  second 
be  prepared  for  the  printer  at  once.  His  suggestion 
elicited  the  following  reply  : 

"I  fully  intend  it,  and  have  already  begun  to  collect  and  com 
pile;  but  considering  the  situation  I  am  in,  and  the  many  duties 
that  are  required  of  me  as  a  son,  a  husband,  a  father,  a  pastor 
and  a  friend,  and  making  allowance  for  foreseen  and  unforeseen 
impediments  arising  out  of  the  nature  of  the  work,  it  is  not  a 
supposable  case  that  a  second  volume  can  be  got  ready  for  the 
press  in  less  than  two,  or  perhaps  three,  years  from  this  time. 
The  other  cost  me,  off  and  on,  nine  or  ten  years.  I  know  that  it 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  41 

might  be  run  through  in  a  much  shorter  time  by  a  Grub  Street 
Gazetteer,  who  would  take  everything  on  trust  and  had  materials 
ready  prepared." 

Referring  to  the  statement  of  Dr.  Johnson  that  "no 
writer  has  a  more  easy  task  than  the  historian,"  Bel- 
knap  went  on  to  say  : 

"If  he  had  to  write  the  History  of  a  country,  and  to  search  for 
his  materials  wheresoever  they  were  likely  or  not  likely  to  be  found ; 
if  he  was  to  find  that  the  'treasures'  contained  in  'records'  are  to 
be  explained  by  private  papers,  and  that  these  are  to  be  sought 
in  the  garrets  and  rat-holes  of  old  houses,  when  not  one  in  a  hun 
dred  that  he  was  obliged  to  handle  and  decipher  would  repay  him 
for  the  trouble;  that  'tradition',  whatever  it  might  'pour  down', 
is  always  to  be  suspected  and  examined;  and  that  the  means  of 
examination  are  not  always  to  be  obtained, —  in  short,  if  he  had  to 
go  through  the  drudgery  which  you  and  I  are  pretty  tolerably 
acquainted  with,  and  to  humour  the  passions  of  those  we  are 
obliged  to,  all  the  while,  he  would  be  fully  sensible  that  to  write  an 
History  as  it  should  be  is  not  so  easy  a  work."  l 

When  we  remember  that  this  was  written  at  the 
time  when  Gordon  and  Ramsay  were  drawing  liber 
ally  on  Dodsley's  "Annual  Register"  for  their  histories 
of  the  revolution,  we  shall  be  able  to  understand  how 
much  ahead  of  their  time  were  Belknap  and  Hazard 
in  their  conception  of  the  historian's  art. 

In  the  early  part  of  his  literary  career  Belknap  ap 
pears  as  the  novice  leaning  on  the  superior  knowledge 
of  Hazard,  the  man  of  the  city  and  friend  of  editors 
and  publishers.  But  after  he  settled  in  Boston  and 
began  to  be  in  demand  the  relation  was  reversed. 

i  "Belknap  Papers,"  I,  294  ("Coll."  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.,  Ser.  V,  Vol.  II). 


42  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Hazard,  out  of  his  position  as  postmaster  and  embark 
ing  in  the  field  of  history  himself,  now  looked  to  the 
more  experienced,  and  really  more  able,  Belknap  for 
advice  and  encouragement.  He  was  not  disappointed. 
Belknap  tried  to  sell  his  friend's  "Historical  Collec 
tions"  in  Boston  and  gave  comfort  as  he  could  when 
the  task  proved  difficult.  The  two  men  remained 
friends  until  death  took  away  the  Boston  minister  in 
1798.  At  that  time  Hazard  had  already  relinquished 
his  designs  in  authorship,  and  was  making  money  in 
business. 

Judged  by  what  they  wrote  these  two  men  did  not 
produce  a  considerable  number  of  important  books. 
Nor  did  they  begin  an  influence  of  great  magnitude 
that  passed  continuously  into  their  successors.  After 
they  were  gone  it  was  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century 
before  we  had  historians  in  this  country  to  be  com 
pared  with  them.  They  are  to  be  considered  sporadic 
manifestations  of  genius,  who  worked  according  to 
their  richly  endowed  natures,  following  the  gifts  they 
had  received  at  birth,  seeking  truth  earnestly  and  in 
dustriously,  and  feeling  that  they  were  compelled  by 
duty  to  record  it  as  they  could.  Of  the  two,  Belknap 
was  the  best  historian.  His  sparkling  wit,1  so  abun- 

lThe  following  poem,  often  republished  a  century  ago,  was  probably 
written  by  Jeremy  Belknap,  although  attributed  to  his  wife.  It  illustrates 
his  facility  in  writing  humorous  satire. 

The  Pleasures  of  a  Country  Life 
"Up  in  the  morning  I  must  rise 
Before  I've  time  to  rub  my  eyes. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  43 

dantly  exemplified  in  his  correspondence,  and  his 
facility  in  expression,  relieve  his  tendency  to  dwell  on 
facts  merely,  and  we  cannot  but  think  that  in  a  more 
favorable  age  or  environment  he  would  have  developed 
into  a  leading  light  of  literature.  He  was  a  rare  spirit 
set  in  a  new  and  unformed  world,  doing  his  task  well 
and  overriding  limitations  that  many  a  man  in  more 
conventionalized  surroundings  would  not  have  sur 
mounted. 

5.     Early  Histories  of  the  United  States 

The  first  writers  to  attempt  to  treat  all  the  colonies 
as  a  whole  were  two  Englishmen.  The  first  was  John 
Oldmixon,  who  as  early  as  1707  made  a  sorry  attempt 
to  write  a  history  of  the  British  colonies  in  America. 

With  half-pinned  gown,  unbuckled  shoe, 
I  haste  to  milk  my  lowing  cow. 
But,  Oh !  it  makes  my  heart  to  ake, 
I  have  no  bread  till  I  can  bake. 
And  then,  alas !  it  makes  me  sputter, 
For  I  must  churn  or  have  no  butter. 
The  hogs  with  swill  too  I  must  serve ; 
For  hogs  must  eat  or  men  will  starve. 
Besides,  my  spouse  can  get  no  cloaths. 
Unless  I  much  offend  my  nose. 
For  all  that  try  it  know  it's  true 
There  is  no  smell  like  colouring  blue. 
Then  round  the  parish  I  must  ride 
And  make  enquiry  far  and  wide 
To  find  some  girl  that  is  a  spinner, 
Then  hurry  home  to  get  my  dinner. 

"If  with  romantic  steps  I  stray 
Around  the  fields  and  meadows  gay. 


44  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

The  other  was  George  Chalmers,  an  able  writer,  who 
published  his  "Political  Annals  of  the  Present  United 
Colonies"  in  1780  and  followed  it  with  an  "Introduc 
tion  to  the  History  of  the  Revolt  of  the  American 
Colonies"  four  years  later.  He  had  access  to  British 
documents  not  accessible  in  the  colonies.  In  feeling 
he  was  very  British,  and  the  Americans  rejected  him 

The  grass,  besprinkled  with  the  dews, 
Will  wet  my  feet  and  rot  my  shoes. 
If  on  a  mossy  bank  I  sleep, 
Pismires  and  crickets  o'er  me  creep, 
Or  near  the  purling  rill  am  seen 
The  dire  mosquitos  pierce  my  skin. 
Yet  such  delights  I  seldom  see 
Confind  to  house  and  family. 

"All  summer  long  I  toil  and  sweat, 
Blister  my  hands,  and  scold  and  fret. 
And  when  the  summer  work  is  o'er, 
New  toils  arise  from  Autumn's  store. 
Corn  must  be  husk'd,  and  pork  be  kill'd. 
The  house  with  all  confusion  fill'd. 
O  could  you  see  the  grand  display 
Upon  our  annual  butchering  day, — 
See  me  look  like  ten  thousand  sluts, 
My  kitchen  spread  with  grease  and  guts, — 
You'd  lift  your  hand  surpris'd  and  swear 
That  Mother  Trisket's  self  were  there. 

"Yet  starch'd  up  folks  that  live  in  town, 
That  lounge  upon  your  beds  till  noon, 
That  never  tire  yourselves  with  work, 
Unless  with  handling  knife  and  fork, 
Come,  see  the  sweets  of  country  life, 
Display'd  by  Parson  B 's  wife.'* 

See  "Belknap  Papers,"  III,  228,  note  ("Coll."  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.,  Ser.  VI, 
Vol.  IV). 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  45 

i 

as  unfair  and  inadequate;  but  he  stimulated  them  to 
attempt  a  more  satisfactory  treatment. 

The  first  American  historian  to  write  an  important 
general  history  was  Rev.  Abiel  Holmes,  who  published 
the  first  edition  of  his  "American  Annals,"  in  two 
volumes,  in  1805.  He  wrote  with  great  accuracy,  but 
the  style  was  dull  and  strictly  annalistic.  The  work 
did  not  satisfy  those  who  looked  for  a  treatment 
worthy  of  their  devotion  to  the  newly  established 
united  government.  Benjamin  Trumbull,  whose  his 
tory  of  Connecticut  has  been  mentioned,  next  attempted 
the  same  task.  The  first  volume  of  his  "General 
History  of  the  United  States  of  America,  1492-1792," 
carrying  the  story  to  1765,  was  published  in  1810.  It 
was  a  solid  piece  of  work  without  notable  literary 
merit,  and  its  success  was  not  great  enough  to  warrant 
its  continuation. 

Next  came  the  "Political  and  Civil  History  of  the 
United  States"  (2  volumes,  1828),  by  Timothy  Pitkin, 
a  Connecticut  lawyer.  The  author  gave  much  atten 
tion  to  the  statistical  development  of  the  country, 
treating  his  subject  in  a  colorless  manner.  He  was 
federalist  in  sympathy  and  did  not  subordinate  politi 
cal  feelings  to  truth.  For  a  long  time  he  was  con 
sidered  the  best  authority  on  the  subject.  But  he 
gave  chief  stress  to  the  affairs  of  New  England,  and 
even  the  people  of  that  section  could  but  admit  that 
he  had  failed  in  his  object  of  writing  an  adequate  his 
tory  of  the  whole  country.  In  1817  he  published  a 


46  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

"Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United 
States"  which  is  still  held  in  high  esteem. 

It  was  with  an  idea  of  making  up  the  deficiencies  of 
such  works  as  Pitkin's,  TrumbulPs,  and  Holmes's  that 
George  Bancroft  was  led  to  begin  his  history.  His 
sympathy  for  the  democratic  party  made  it  certain 
that  his  work  would  not  be  unduly  f ederalistic ;  but 
he  did  not  get  beyond  the  colonial  period. 

While  Bancroft  was  slowly  bringing  out  his  volumes 
in  the  intervals  of  his  political  activity  there  appeared 
in  Boston  a  writer  who  was  about  to  produce  a  better, 
but  less  popular,  book  in  the  same  field.  This  was 
Richard  Hildreth,  who  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Atlas,  an  influential  newspaper  of  Boston.  He  re 
mained  with  this  paper  from  1832  to  1840,  but  his 
health  failing  he  sought  a  milder  climate  in  Florida  and 
in  Demerara,  British  Guinea.  Returning  to  the  United 
States,  he  became  a  ready  writer  on  many  subjects.  At 
last  he  entered  the  field  of  history,  and  in  1849  pub 
lished  in  three  volumes  the  first  series  of  his  "History 
of  the  United  States,"  followed  three  years  later,  1852, 
by  the  second  series,  also  containing  three  volumes. 
The  whole  carried  the  story  of  national  life  down  to  1820. 

Although  Hildreth  wrote  from  the  New  England 
standpoint,  he  sought  to  avoid  sectional  bias.  It  was 
the  time  of  violent  controversy,  and  he  was  an  earnest 
opponent  of  slavery :  but  his  book  was  nearly  free 
from  that  kind  of  bias.  He  was,  also,  intent  on  secur 
ing  the  facts  of  history,  and  to  this  day  the  student 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  47 

derives  much  assistance  from  his  accurate  and  all-em 
bracing  statements.  His  book  is  one  that  a  man  seek 
ing  information  may  well  have  at  hand  as  a  constant 
reference  for  details.  He  wished,  moreover,  to  strip 
our  history  of  the  Fourth-of-July  cant  with  which  an 
earnestly  patriotic  age  had  clothed  it.  A  British  re 
viewer  said  of  it :  "We  encounter  the  muse  of  American 
history  descended  from  her  stump,  and  recounting  her 
narrative  in  a  key  adapted  to  our  own  ears."  Weak 
ness  in  style  and  the  lack  of  the  faculty  of  interpreting 
broad  movements  are,  perhaps,  its  chief  defects. 

One  other  New  England  historian  remains  to  be 
mentioned  here.  Although  he  falls  chronologically  out 
side  of  the  limits  assigned  to  this  volume,  he  belongs 
in  spirit  to  the  early  New  Englanders.  Rev.  John 
Gorham  Palfrey  was  pastor  of  a  church  in  Boston,  pro 
fessor  in  Harvard,  editor  of  the  North  American  Review, 
and  a  prolific  writer  of  religious  and  historical  tracts. 
He  has  been  called  "filo-pietistic"  because  he  was  so 
much  devoted  to  the  defense  of  New  England  ideals. 
His  "History  of  New  England  during  the  Stuart 
Dynasty"  (3-vols.,  1858-1864)  was  well  received  by 
New  Englanders.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  result  of  much 
labor  and  was  a  learned  and  useful  work.  But  it  was 
a  defense  of  Puritanism  written  at  a  time  when 
men  like  Charles  Francis  Adams  were  beginning  to 
criticize  with  singular  sharpness  the  deeds  and  ideals  of 
the  former  ruling  class  in  the  land  of  Winthrop  and 
Bradford.  The  author  wrote  a  continuation  of  his  work 


48  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

with  the  title,  "History  of  New  England  from  the  Revo 
lution  of  the  17th  Century  to  the  Revolution  of  the 
18th"  (2  vols.,  1875-1890),  the  last  volume  being  pub 
lished  with  additions  after  his  death.  Realizing  that 
his  work  was  too  extensive  for  general  use,  he  published 
a  shorter  work  in  four  volumes  in  1865-1873,  with  the 
title  "Compendious  History  of  New  England  to  the 
first  general  Congress  of  the  Anglo-American  Colonies." 
In  this  industrious  and  capacious  writer,  Puritanism 
found  a  worthy  interpreter  and  defender. 

Most  of  the  activities  here  described  were  in  the  re 
gion  directly  adjacent  to  Boston  :  the  reader  must  find 
the  reason  for  himself.  Why  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  should  have  lagged  behind  is  another  interesting 
subject  of  speculation.  Why  the  South  should  have 
been  left  so  pathetically  void  of  literature  is  a  question 
that  has  called  forth  anxious  debate.  It  was  evident 
to  the  men  of  the  period  that  the  South  was  having  her 
history  written  by  persons  who,  however  worthy,  were 
at  heart  not  in  sympathy  with  Southern  ideals.  News 
paper  editors  scolded  at  the  situation,  orators  cast  re 
proaches,  and  conventions  passed  resolutions,  but  to 
little  avail.  It  is  true  that  some  creditable  state  his 
tories  appeared,  like  those  of  Dr.  Hawks,  on  North 
Carolina;  Pickett,  on  early  Alabama;  McCall,  on 
Georgia ;  Stevens,  on  Georgia ;  Hay  wood,  on  Tennessee ; 
Charles  Campbell,  on  Virginia ;  Bozman,  on  Maryland  ; 
and  Broadhead,  on  New  York.  But  these  writers  did 
not  attempt  large  things. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  49 

The  demand  in  the  South  was  for  a  book  which 
would  treat  the  history  of  the  nation  in  such  a  way 
that  the  presidents  who  represented  the  ideals  of 
Southern  voters  should  not  be  held  up  as  bunglers,  and 
that  the  part  taken  by  the  South  in  the  revolution  and 
later  should  be  presented  with  as  much  fullness  as  the 
South  thought  fair.  It  was  in  keeping  with  this  de 
mand  that  a  leading  Virginian,  George  Tucker,  pub 
lished  his  "History  of  the  United  States,  to  the  end 
of  the  26th  Congress  in  1841 "  (4  vols.,  1856-1858).  It 
is  not  a  great  book,  but  a  good  one,  a  worthy  fulfill 
ment  of  the  purpose  which  inspired  its  creation.  Its 
misfortune  was  that  it  was  offered  to  a  people  not  ac 
customed  to  read  large  and  serious  books,  and  it  failed 
of  its  object  because  it  was  not  read  as  widely  as  the 
author  had  a  right  to  expect.  It  is  known  in  our  own 
generation  chiefly  through  the  impression  it  made  upon 
those  whose  defects  it  was  intended  to  offset,  while  the 
South  has  gone  on  reading  the  histories  written  in  the 
North.  Tucker  was  a  man  of  learning  and  wrote  many 
fugitive  political  pieces  for  local  readers.  He  is  also 
remembered  for  a  valuable  "Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson" 
which  appeared  in  two  volumes  in  1837. 

6.    Gayarre 

In  the  list  of  state  historians  just  given  the  name  of 
Charles  Etienne  Arthur  Gayarre  was  omitted  because 
it  seems  to  deserve  separate  treatment.  He  was  born 
in  New  Orleans  of  distinguished  Creole  lineage  in  1805. 


50  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Educated  as  a  lawyer,  he  early  turned  his  attention  to 
the  history  of  his  native  state.  In  1830  he  published 
in  French  his  "Essai  Historique  sur  la  Louisiane."  It 
was  based  upon  the  dry  collection  of  documents  which 
Frangois  Xavier  Martin  had  published  in  1827  with  the 
title  "History  of  Louisiana,"  but  the  style  was  greatly 
different.  Assuming  the  manner  of  an  old  man  ad 
dressing  young  people  and  making  use  of  the  traditions 
in  which  Creole  communities  were  rich,  he  wrote  a  book 
whose  charms  appealed  to  old  and  young  alike.  It 
was  not  sober  history,  but  historical  romance. 

In  1835  Gayarre  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
senate,  but  at  the  same  time  he  developed  symptoms 
of  a  serious  disease,  which  sent  him  off  to  Paris  for  a 
course  of  treatment  in  which  seven  years  were  con 
sumed.  While  in  the  city  he  took  up  the  study  of 
Louisiana  history  as  a  means  of  employing  his  other 
wise  idle  hours.  He  secured  access  to  the  records  of  the 
colony  in  the  offices  of  the  ministry  of  the  marine  and 
colonies,  and  returned  to  New  Orleans  with  a  large 
mass  of  notes  on  his  favorite  subject.  On  this  basis 
he  published  in  1846  and  1847  two  volumes  in  French 
on  the  history  of  Louisiana,  from  the  earliest  days  to  the 
end  of  the  French  domination,  1769. 

These  volumes  had  much  of  the  charm  that  was 
in  all  Gayarre's  writings,  but  being  in  the  French 
language  they  were  not  available  to  the  people  of  the 
state  generally.  They  belonged  to  the  people  of  the 
past,  and  they  must  remain  in  the  existing  form  a 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  51 

sealed  book  to  the  future,  since  no  one  could  doubt  that 
English  was  to  be  the  language  of  coming  Louisianians. 
Reflections  like  these  caused  the  author  to  begin  his 
work  over  again  in  another  tongue. 

Invited  to  give  a  popular  lecture  in  New  Orleans,  he 
took  for  his  subject  "The  Poetry  or  Romance  of  the 
History  of  Louisiana,"  confining  himself  to  the  deeds  of 
De  Soto,  Father  Marquette,  and  La  Salle.  The  lec 
ture  was  so  successful  that  he  followed  the  vein  and  in 
1848  published  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  lectures  a 
volume  called  "Romance  of  the  History  of  Louisiana," 
carrying  the  story  of  the  colony,  in  English,  as  far  as 
1717.  In  closing  the  volume  the  author  said:  "I 
hope  I  shall  be  forgiven  for  having  deviated  from  his 
torical  truth  in  the  preceding  pages  with  regard  to  par 
ticulars  which  I  deemed  of  no  importance.  For  in 
stance,  I  changed  the  name  of  Crozat's  daughter. 
Why  ?  Perhaps  it  was  owing  to  some  capricious  whim 
-perhaps  there  is  to  me  some  spell  in  the  name  of 
Andrea."  In  real  life  she  was  Marie  Anne  Crozat. 
The  account  of  her  death  at  the  close  of  the  volume  is 
as  dramatic  a  story  as  Sir  Walter  Scott  himself  could 
have  written.  There  were  numerous  other  places  in 
the  narrative  in  which  his  imagination  was  allowed  to 
have  play. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  this  volume,  Gayarre 
published  in  1851  a  second  installment  of  "lectures" 
carrying  the  story  to  1743.  In  the  preface  he  made 
this  statement:  "I  was  informed  that  many  had 


52  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

taken  for  the  invention  of  the  brain  what  was  but  his 
torical  truth  set  in  a  gilded  frame,  when,  to  use  the  ex 
pression  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  I  had  taken  but  in 
significant  liberties  with  facts,  to  interest  my  readers, 
and  make  my  narrative  more  delightful,  in  imitation 
of  the  painter  who,  though  his  work  is  called  history 
painting,  gives  in  reality  a  poetical  representation  of 
facts."  He  added,  however,  that,  profiting  by  expe 
rience,  he  had  been  "more  sparing  of  embellishments" 
in  the  second  installment.  In  truth,  the  second  series 
was  less  imaginative  than  the  first,  but  it  was  still  far 
too  much  under  the  sway  of  an  errant  fancy  and  could 
not  command  the  confidence  of  readers  seeking  his 
torical  truth.  The  title  of  this  series  is  "Louisiana: 
its  Colonial  History  and  Romance."  1 

Immediately  after  the  appearance  of  the  second 
series  came  a  third,  carrying  the  story  in  English  to 
the  end  of  the  French  regime.  Here  again  we  see  the 
progress  of  a  sobering  judgment.  "I  looked  upon  the 
first  four  lectures,"  he  said  in  the  preface,  "as  nugae 
seriae,  to  which  I  attached  no  more  importance  than  a 
child  does  to  the  soap  bubbles  which  he  puffs  through 
the  tube  of  the  tiny  reed,  picked  up  by  him  for  the 
amusement  of  the  passing  hour.  But  struck  with  the 
interest  which  I  had  excited,  I  examined,  with  more 
sober  thoughts,  the  flowery  field  in  which  I  had  sported, 
almost  with  the  buoyancy  of  a  schoolboy.  Checking 
the  freaks  of  my  imagination,  that  boon  companion 

1  The  first  series  of  lectures  is  reprinted  in  this  book. 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  53 

with  whom  I  had  been  gamboling,  I  took  to  the  plow, 
broke  the  ground,  and  turned  myself  to  a  more  serious 
and  useful  occupation.  This  is,  I  think,  clearly  ob 
servable  in  the  second  series  of  Lectures.  In  the  third 
and  last  series,  which  I  now  venture  to  lay  before  the 
public,  change  of  tone  and  manner,  corresponding  with 
the  authenticity  and  growing  importance  of  the  events 
which  I  have  to  record,  will  be  still  more  perceptible." 
From  that  time  he  was  measurably  impressed  with  the 
duty  of  the  historian  to  hold  himself  a  credible  witness 
of  truth. 

In  1854  the  three  series  of  "lectures"  referred  to 
were  embodied  in  one  book  and  published  in  two  vol 
umes  with  the  title,  "History  of  Louisiana :  The  French 
Domination."  At  the  same  time  Gayarre  said  that 
he  would  continue  the  work  and  treat  of  the  Spanish 
and  American  dominations.  Hard  on  the  heels  of  the 
promise,  in  1854,  he  published  in  one  volume  "The 
History  of  Louisiana  :  The  Spanish  Domination,"  deal 
ing  with  the  years  1769  to  1805.  It  was  the  best  part 
of  his  history ;  for  having  discarded  the  tendency  to 
romance  and  confined  himself  to  sober  facts,  he  now 
wrote  better  than  before;  and  having  more  interest 
in  this  than  in  the  American  regime,  he  wrote  better 
than  he  was  to  write  again.  The  Spanish  period  was 
filled  with  political  intrigue  and  clashing  personal  am 
bition.  The  designs  of  evil  men  followed  one  another 
with  tragic  steps  until  at  last  the  whole  fabric  of  vio 
lence  fell  before  the  advent  of  the  strong  and  rather 


54  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

prosaic  government  of  American  democracy.  This 
scene  of  strife  was  a  fine  field  for  the  graphic  powers 
of  such  a  narrator  as  Gayarre,  and  he  made  the  most 
of  it.  Miss  Grace  King  well  says  that  his  account  of 
it  will  remain  "the  chief  standard  by  which  emulative 
writers  of  Louisiana  history  measure  their  failure  or 
success." 

The  "American  Domination"  was  finished,  but  not 
published,  when  the  civil  war  broke  over  the  country. 
It  was  laid  aside  and  not  given  to  the  public  until  1866. 
It  was  well  done,  but  it  lacked  the  movement  of  the 
preceding  volumes.  The  Americans  brought  in  the 
rule  of  democracy,  and  during  their  control,  save  for 
the  short  period  during  which  the  British  were  before 
New  Orleans,  public  life  was  sober,  economic,  and 
merely  political.  Gayarre  was  not  a  good  historian  of 
the  humdrum.  River  captains,  city  merchants,  land 
speculators,  and  shrewd  lawyers  lost  some  of  their 
charm  in  his  handling  when  they  were  no  longer  iden 
tified  with  the  fine  old  Creole  families  of  other  days. 

The  latter  part  of  Gayarre's  career  was  as  tragic  as 
the  events  he  was  so  fond  of  describing.  Easily  among 
the  most  prominent  of  the  older  families,  he  was  in  the 
early  part  of  his  life  a  promising  politician,  being  elected 
senator  at  thirty  years  of  age.  When  he  returned 
from  France  he  wished  to  take  his  old  place  in  the 
procession,  but  it  was  lost  irretrievably.  He  consoled 
himself  with  thinking  he  could  still  live  in  ease  and  write 
history.  He  is  described  as  a  man  of  dominating 


EARLY    PROGRESS    OF    HISTORY  55 

temper,  who  brooked  no  opposition.  For  seven  years 
he  was  secretary  of  state  by  the  appointment  of  the 
governor.  In  1853  he  was  seriously  considered  for  the 
post  of  minister  to  Madrid,  but  the  appointment  went 
to  another  Louisianian,  Pierre  Soule.  In  1860,  his 
great  cycle  of  labor  finished,  he  made  plans  for  a  long 
period  of  residence  in  Spain  at  his  own  expense.  But 
here  fate  intervened.  He  supported  the  confederacy 
with  all  the  fervor  of  his  ardent  nature.  He  defended 
secession  with  his  pen,  living  quietly  on  his  plantation 
near  New  Orleans.  During  this  period  he  wrote  a  life 
of  Philip  II  of  Spain,  but  the  book  was  based  on  insuf 
ficient  authorities  and  did  him  no  credit.  The  war  left 
him  in  poverty,  and  he  became  that  most  unhappy  of 
derelicts,  an  aristocratic  office-seeker.  In  1875  he  was 
appointed  reporter  of  the  state  supreme  court,  but 
next  year  the  supreme  court  was  abolished  in  the  stern 
struggle  to  save  the  state  from  republican  domination. 
When  the  court  was  reestablished  after  the  triumph 
of  the  natives,  the  office  of  reporter  was  allotted  to 
another  man. 

In  his  old  age  —  it  was  a  long  old  age,  for  he  lived  to 
be  ninety  —  Gayarre  wrote  many  things  that  were  not 
worthy  of  his  fame.  He  tried  fiction  without  success, 
he  wrote  newspaper  articles  on  old  Louisiana  life,  he 
gave  lectures,  and  he  rewrote  in  popular  form  some 
of  the  things  he  had  incorporated  in  his  larger  work. 
Of  all  this  group  the  best  was  "Fernando  de  Lemos," 
published  in  1872,  a  narrative  in  fictitious  manner, 


56  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

in  which  he  really  recounted  scenes  from  his  own  life. 
He  died  in  1895,  having  outlived  the  old  Southern 
regime  by  thirty  years.  As  an  historian  he  was  among 
our  best ;  for  to  the  capacity  of  research  and  clear  com 
position  he  added  the  faculty  of  graceful  expression  in 
a  degree  which  few  of  our  historians  have  equaled.  If 
the  original  French  impetus  to  high  historical  style 
could  have  been  steadied  in  the  beginning  by  the  hand 
of  some  master  who  knew  how  to  subordinate  fancy 
to  fact,  he  would  not  have  been  left  to  wander  of  his 
own  will  through  the  uncertain  fields  of  romance  to  a 
higher  ground.  Self -taught  in  this  respect,  it  was  to 
his  great  credit  that  he  at  length  reached  the  better 
style.  Could  he  have  lived  in  some  city  in  which  other 
historical  writers  furnished  the  stimulus  of  generous 
rivalry,  he  would  probably  have  left  a  greater  and  more 
equal  range  of  writing.  As  it  was,  he  did  enough  to 
show  his  capacity.  The  South  has  had  no  other  his 
torian  to  whom  nature  was  so  generous  of  gifts. 


CHAPTER  II 

JARED  SPARKS 
1.   Early  Activities 

JARED  SPARKS,  who  was  destined  to  be  for  a  long  time 
the  chief  authority  on  the  life  of  George  Washington, 
was  born  in  Willington,  Connecticut,  May  10,  1789, 
ten  days  after  the  first  president  took  the  oath  of  office. 
He  was  one  of  the  earliest  citizens  born  under  the  new 
government.  In  his  boyhood  the  perils  of  the  revolu 
tion  and  of  the  critical  years  that  followed  had  been 
forgotten  and  our  war  for  independence  was  already 
covered  with  romance.  Patriotic  and  loyal  to  liberty 
with  the  peculiar  intentness  of  the  men  of  his  day,  he 
made  it  a  sacred  labor  to  preserve  the  story  of  the 
conflict  through  which  liberty  was  established. 

His  early  life  was  full  of  hardships.  His  mother 
was  a  woman  of  the  small  farmer  class,  married  to  a 
man  of  her  own  rank,  whom  her  son,  Jared,  dutifully 
called  father.  The  boy  was  brilliant  at  school  and 
became  known  as  a  prodigy  in  arithmetic,  doing  with 
ease  the  hardest  sums  that  could  be  brought  him. 
He  taught  himself  the  principles  of  navigation  and 
astronomy  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  was  a  country 
schoolmaster  earning  eight  dollars  a  month.  When 

57 


58  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

school  was  not  in  session  he  worked  as  a  carpenter 
and  studied  Latin  with  the  village  minister,  Rev. 
Hubbel  Loomis.  In  this  subject,  progress  was  so 
rapid  that  in  eight  weeks  from  the  beginning  he 
was  reading  "Virgil"  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  lines 
a  day. 

Such  a  boy  was  not  born  to  build  barns,  nor  to  wield 
the  birch  in  a  village  school.  Through  the  aid  of 
friends  he  was  enabled  to  enter  Phillips  Academy, 
at  Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  from  which,  after  two 
years  of  residence,  he  went  to  Harvard,  in  1811,  being 
then  twenty-two  years  old  and  very  mature  for  his  age. 
He  graduated  in  1815.  In  the  classics  and  mathe 
matics  he  was  so  well  grounded  that  the  class  exercises 
were  but  play.  President  Kirkland  would  say : 
" Sparks  is  not  only  a  man,  but  a  man  and  a  half." 
Most  of  his  classmates  were  at  least  six  years  his 
juniors,  but  he  carried  himself  in  such  a  way  that  he 
won  their  respect  as  well  as  their  admiration.  Much 
of  his  sophomore  year  was  spent  at  Havre  de  Grace, 
Maryland,  where  he  served  as  tutor  in  the  family  of  a 
planter.  His  teaching  was  not  heavy,  and  he  so 
improved  his  time  that  he  returned  to  college  and  took 
the  examinations  for  the  year  with  his  class.  While 
a  junior  he  taught  for  ten  weeks  in  a  school  at  Bolton, 
Massachusetts.  His  diaries  for  these  years  show  that 
while  a  student  he  did  a  prodigious  amount  of  reading. 

After  graduation  he  first  taught  a  select  school  at 
Lancaster,  reading  theology  in  the  meanwhile.  Next 


JARED    SPARKS  59 

he  was  a  tutor  at  Harvard,  teaching  mathematics 
and  natural  history.  In  1817  he  was  made  managing 
editor  of  the  North  American  Review.  This  periodical, 
then  two  years  old,  had  for  its  chief  reliance  a  group 
of  men  pledged  to  furnish  articles,  but  the  services 
of  a  managing  editor  were  not  light.  His  duty  was 
to  prepare  the  articles  for  the  press,  read  the  proof, 
and  look  after  the  distribution.  He  was  a  Unitarian 
in  religion  and  had  imbibed  the  fervor  which  charac 
terized  that  church  at  this  early  period  of  its  exist 
ence.  To  give  men  a  form  of  religious  faith  in  which 
reason  played  a  larger  part  than  in  the  old  system 
seemed  to  him,  and  to  many  others  at  Harvard,  the 
great  work  of  an  educated  man.  He  accordingly  gave 
himself  up  to  the  ministry,  declining  a  professorship 
at  Bowdoin  College.  In  1819  came  a  call  to  become 
the  Unitarian  pastor  in  Baltimore.  Vast  possibilities 
seemed  to  open  in  Baltimore.  For  many  years  it  had 
been  well  known  that  the  planter  class  of  the  South, 
yielding  to  the  liberal  philosophy  of  the  day,  had 
been  very  lukewarm  toward  the  orthodox  churches. 
Was  this  not  the  opportunity  for  the  new  faith,  which 
rejected  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity  and  left  men  free 
to  follow  their  intellects?  And  who  could  carry  the 
message  of  enlightenment  to  these  people  better  than 
one  who  was  acknowledged  the  most  brilliant  of  the 
younger  men  in  the  movement?  Sparks  accepted  the 
call,  and  his  friends  saw  his  departure  with  the  greatest 
expectations. 


60  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

For  four  years  the  fight  was  made  in  Baltimore, 
ably  and  with  personal  satisfaction.  At  the  end  of 
the  time  Unitarianism  was  a  weak  force  in  the  city, 
and  the  surrounding  country  was  no  more  ready  to 
accept  it  than  formerly.  In  fact,  it  is  a  form  of  faith 
that  has  not  thriven  among  the  Southern  people. 
Sparks  himself  was  highly  esteemed  in  the  city;  and 
he  won  the  affection  of  his  own  flock  to  an  unusual 
degree.  His  sermons  were  well  received  by  all  classes. 
He  founded  a  society  for  the  distribution  of  books  and 
tracts,  and  in  1821  he  established  The  Unitarian 
Miscellany,  a  monthly  periodical,  which  attracted 
the  attention  of  many  people.  Controversy  sprang 
up,  in  which  Sparks  carried  himself  with  ability  and 
aggression.  In  1821  he  was  chosen  chaplain  of  the 
national  house  of  representatives  in  a  sharp  contest 
in  which  liberalism  and  orthodoxy  were  the  contend 
ing  sides.  In  Washington  he  gave  his  energy  to  the 
establishment  of  a  Unitarian  church  in  the  capital. 
Hard  work  undermined  his  health,  probably  there 
was  some  discouragement  because  his  church  did  not 
grow  as  rapidly  as  he  had  expected,  and  in  1823  he 
resigned  his  pastorate  and  returned  to  Boston. 

It  is  not  possible  to  deny  that  by  1823  Sparks  had 
lost  most  of  his  ministerial  interest.  This  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  when  he  gave  up  his  Baltimore  pas 
torate  he  gave  up  the  ministry  as  well.  He  burned  his 
sermons  and  there  is  no  record  that  he  ever  preached 
again.  Secular  interests,  also,  had  been  steadily 


JARED    SPARKS  61 

creeping  into  his  life.  During  his  entire  stay  in  Balti 
more,  in  spite  of  his  hard  labor  for  his  professional 
tasks,  he  had  written  steadily  for  the  North  American 
Review;  and  his  articles  in  that  journal  were  written 
in  the  most  exact  manner.  For  an  ordinary  review 
he  would  make  careful  preliminary  investigation. 
Said  Edward  Everett,  who  was  the  editor  before  Sparks  : 
"I  am  obliged  to  depend  on  myself  more  than  on  any 
other  person,  and  I  must  write  that  which  will  run 
fastest.  I  am  ashamed  of  this,  but  cannot  help  it." 
Sparks  could  write  in  no  such  manner.  When  he  had 
to  prepare  an  article  he  began  by  gathering  all  avail 
able  materials.  It  is  a  practice  now  well  enough 
recognized;  but  in  1823  few  reviewers  took  so  much 
pains.  Sparks  was  too  much  of  a  literary  man  to  be 
content  with  the  ministry  permanently. 

One  of  his  Boston  friends  was  William  H.  Eliot, 
who  in  the  winter  of  1820-1821  returned  from  the 
medical  schools  in  Paris.  To  Sparks  he  wrote  as 
follows : 

"Every  time  I  think  of  your  establishment  at  Baltimore  I  am 
less  pleased  than  the  last,  and  when  I  have  any  reason  to  doubt 
your  recollection  in  addition  to  the  distance  which  separates  us, 
and  the  difference  of  pursuits  which  occupy  us,  I  am  half  disposed 
to  quarrel  with  those  who  sent  you  to  this  outer  post  of  Unitarian 
warfare.  What  is  there  in  your  most  distant  prospects  to  repay 
you  for  all  the  sacrifices  you  have  made  and  are  continually  making  ? 
Is  it  the  triumph  of  opinion  over  prejudice  and  bigotry,  or  the  hope 
of  uniting  men  on  subjects  which  have  divided  the  world  ever 
since  anything  has  been  known  about  them?  For  my  own  part, 
I  was  never  so  indifferent  as  I  have  been  since  I  returned  from 


62  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Europe  about  speculation  in  theology.  I  have  seen  learned  and 
excellent  men  on  opposite  sides  of  these  questions,  and  I  do  not 
find  that  moral  principle  is  more  powerful  or  energetic  or  elevated 
in  one  sect  or  the  other  of  the  two  which  divide  our  country.  Nor 
can  I  believe  that  what  is  very  important  for  us  to  know  and  under 
stand  would  have  been  left  in  darkness  and  mystery." 

Consider  this  letter,  also,  which  the  same  writer 
sent  to  Sparks  over  a  year  later : 

"How  many  years  of  exile  yet  remain  for  you  ?  Are  you  deter 
mined  to  devote  yourself  to  the  propagation  of  Unitarianism  in 
the  South,  and  do  you  believe  that  you  are  serving  society  and 
religion  more  by  leading  such  a  life  than  in  doing  your  part  in 
forming  the  character  of  those  who  are  to  fill  your  place  and  that 
of  other  great  men  in  society  ?  I  may  be  deceived  by  iny  friend 
ship  for  you,  but  I  really  believe  that  if  you  were  to  come  to  Cam 
bridge  and  live  there  unconnected  with  College,  you  would  do 
more  good  than  if  you  made  a  thousand  converts  a  day.  The 
passions  and  vices  of  the  mass  of  mankind,  I  fear,  will  always 
remain  substantially  the  same,  whatever  doctrine  they  profess, 
but  the  influence  of  the  character  of  one  man  of  a  fair,  honest 
and  intelligent  mind  upon  such  a  jarring  association  as  that  at 
Cambridge  would  be  in  my  opinion  of  incalculable  value.  They 
would  be  ashamed  of  their  little  squabbles  and  miserable  attempts 
to  injure  and  degrade  each  other  hi  the  society  of  such  a  man. 
Not  that  I  should  hope  for  the  entire  reformation  of  this  genus 
irritabile.  Ambitious  men  can  no  more  be  just  to  their  rivals, 
when  the  object  of  common  pursuit  is  literary  eminence,  than 
any  other  of  the  great  subjects  of  contention  in  this  world."  * 

Breaking  with  the  Boston  circle  for  four  years  and 
living  in  a  section  so  entirely  unlike  New  England 
would  naturally  have  a  broadening  influence  on  Sparks. 

1  Wm.  H.  Eliot  to  Sparks,  March  15,  1821,  and  Nov.  21,  1822.  Sparks 
MSS,  Harvard  Library. 


JARED    SPARKS  63 

It  showed  him  another  side  of  life.  In  his  two  years 
of  service  as  chaplain  of  the  house  of  representatives 
he  was  brought  into  association  with  the  most  distin 
guished  public  men.  His  correspondence  attests  the 
cordial  relations  he  established  with  many  of  them. 
He  impressed  himself  on  their  world  as  a  man  of  great 
learning  and  ability;  and  he  went  on  his  way  in  life 
with  the  advantage  of  a  reputation  among  the  great 
men  of  the  land. 

In  Baltimore,  Sparks  came  into  close  contact  with 
slavery,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  his  opinion 
of  it  was  not  different  from  that  of  intelligent  South 
erners  of  the  day.  He  considered  it  an  evil  to  be  en 
dured.  "No  dream,"  said  he  in  1824,  "can  be  more 
wild  than  that  of  emancipating  slaves  who  are  still 
to  remain  among  us  free.  We  unhesitatingly  express 
it  as  our  belief  —  and  we  speak  from  some  experience 
—  that  the  free  people  of  color  as  a  class  in  the  slave- 
holding  States  are  a  greater  nuisance  to  society,  more 
comfortless,  tempted  to  more  vices,  and  actually  less 
qualified  to  enjoy  existence,  than  the  slaves  them 
selves.  In  such  a  state  of  things  manumission  is  no 
blessing  to  the  slaves,  while  it  is  an  evil  of  the  most 
serious  kind  to  the  whites."  1  He  belonged  to  a  New 
England  which  had  not  yielded  to  the  abolition  cru 
sade.  He  was  of  the  group  of  Prescott,  Motley,  Ban 
croft,  and  Everett,  who  followed  literature  in  the  pure 
devotion  to  it.  Twenty-five  years  later  another  circle 

1  Adams,  "  Life  and  Writings  of  Jared  Sparks,"  I,  247. 


64  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

dominated  Boston,  men  who  made  literature  the  hand 
maid  of  reform. 

2.   Editor  of  the  North  American  Review 

In  the  summer  of  1823  Sparks  returned  to  Boston 
without  definite  plans  for  the  future.  He  soon  began 
negotiations  to  purchase  and  edit  the  North  American 
Review,  from  conducting  which  Edward  Everett  wished 
to  retire.  This  periodical  was  in  a  hopeful  state. 
Founded  by  William  Tudor  in  1815,  it  was  supported 
by  a  small  group  of  proprietors,  who  agreed  to  write  for 
it  and  share  the  possible  profits,  in  proportion  to  their 
contributions.  Sparks  while  a  tutor  at  Harvard  was  one 
of  the  group  and  was  acting  editor.  When  he  went  to 
Baltimore  he  was  succeeded  by  Edward  T.  Channing, 
who  in  1820  gave  place  to  Edward  Everett.  Two 
thousand  copies  of  the  April,  1821,  issue  were  printed, 
a  considerable  number  of  which  were  kept  for  back 
files.1 

While  the  arrangement  was  fair  to  the  contributors, 
provided  there  were  profits  to  be  distributed,  it  was 
eminently  unfair  in  that  preliminary  stage  in  which 
the  financial  foundations  of  the  enterprise  were  being 
laid.  There  were  no  profits  in  these  days,  but  it  was 
evident  that  the  Review  was  becoming  a  paying  prop 
erty,  and  that  the  few  men  who  wrote  for  it  were  mak 
ing  it  such.  Theophilus  Parsons,  one  of  the  group, 
expressed  himself  on  this  point  as  follows :  "I  shall 
*  Oliver  Everett  to  Sparks,  March  15,  1821.  Sparks  MSS. 


JAEED    SPARKS  65 

never  write  again  for  the  N.  A.  without  being  paid 
for  it,  and  the  question  of  pay  or  not  pay  is  now  agitat 
ing  in  the  club.  None  of  the  owners  of  the  book  work 
but  Everett  and  you,  and  I  do  not  see  sufficient  reason 
for  giving  up  the  spirit  of  my  labours  to  Messrs. 
Mason,  Palfrey  &  Co.  Others  think  with  me;  and 
if  I  could  I  would  spirit  up  every  one  who  has  written 
or  can  write."  1  If  the  Review  was  to  prosper,  it  was 
time  it  was  placed  on  a  sound  financial  basis. 

The  proprietors  were  willing  to  sell  and  August  25, 
1823,  Sparks  became  its  purchaser.  To  each  of  the  five 
partners  he  gave  $1150  and  to  Everett  $4000  in  pay 
ment  for  back  numbers,  the  subscription  list,  and  other 
property.  Including  his  own  share,  the  North  American 
was  thus  valued  at  $10,900.  He  pledged  himself  to 
pay  $2500  at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  $3000  at  the 
end  of  the  second,  $3250  at  the  end  of  the  third,  and 
$1000  at  the  end  of  the  fourth.  Everett,  with  char 
acteristic  generosity,  remitted  the  interest  on  the  $4000 
he  was  to  receive.  Sparks  then  engaged  Oliver  Everett 
as  publishing  agent,  paying  him  $1000  a  year  and  ten 
per  cent,  commission  on  all  the  money  received  for 
subscriptions  above  2100  names.2  His  first  number 
was  issued  January,  1824. 

The  Review  showed  immediately  that  it  was  directed 
by  a  firmer  hand.  Sparks  called  on  his  friends  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  to  write  on  such  subjects  as 

1  To  Sparks,  Nov.  24,  1822.     Sparks  MSS. 

2  Sparks's  Diary,  Aug.  25  and  Sept.  4,  1823.     Sparks  MSS. 


66  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

he  considered  timely.  He  realized  that  it  is  not  the 
function  of  a  good  editor  merely  to  select  and  print 
the  best  of  the  articles  submitted  to  him,  but  to  decide 
upon  the  subjects  to  be  treated  and  secure  the  best 
writers  to  discuss  them.  He  especially  desired  to  con 
duct  an  American  journal,  and  he  wished  the  Review  to 
be  national  in  its  scope.  His  efforts  to  draw  in  con 
tributors  from  all  sections  were  only  partially  success 
ful;  and  his  contributors  were  mostly  from  Boston  or 
its  vicinity. 

Before  his  day  nothing  had  been  paid  for  articles. 
Sparks  adopted  the  rule  of  paying  a  dollar  a  page, 
a  small  sum,  but  an  evidence  of  good  faith  with  the 
contributors.  The  innovation  surprised  the  North 
American  writers.  Some  refused  to  take  the  money, 
among  them  Judge  Story  and  Professor  Andrews 
Norton.  The  latter  said:  "If  I  were  once  to  indulge 
the  notion  of  making  money  by  anything  I  write,  it 
would  lead  to  such  continual  disappointment  that  I 
must  put  all  thought  of  it  out  of  my  head."  *  But  the 
majority  took  what  was  offered,  choosing  to  accept 
the  gratification  of  the  present,  leaving  future  disap 
pointments  to  take  care  of  themselves.  The  practice 
put  magazine  writing  on  a  business  basis  and  it  served 
to  add  dignity  to  the  calling  of  the  reviewer. 

Under  Sparks  the  North  American  became  the 
arbiter  of  the  fate  of  a  new  book  in  New  England.  A 
large  part  of  the  public,  and  the  most  cultivated  part, 

i  Norton  to  Sparks,  Oct.  15,  1825.    Sparks  MSS. 


JARED    SPARKS  67 

waited  to  see  what  this  critic  said.  If  its  judgment 
was  favorable,  the  book  was  well  launched.  By  some 
its  standards  were  pronounced  arbitrary,  and  even 
biased  by  sectional  prejudices.  Prescott  himself 
seemed  to  have  held  this  view;  for,  in  congratulating 
Bancroft  in  1833  on  the  appearance  of  the  first  volume 
of  the  "History  of  the  United  States,"  he  said:  "I 
find  that  Ticknor  and  Sparks  have  both  conceived  a 
favorable  opinion  from  what  they  have  heard.  But 
of  one  thing  rest  assured:  if  you  forswear  your  own 
soil  and  settle  in  Philadelphia,  it  will  be  damned  to  a 
certainty  in  the  North  American :  that  we  are  resolved 
upon,  and  you  know  there  is  no  appeal  from  that 
tribunal."  1 

Sparks  was  practical  and  possessed  good  business 
habits.  He  secured  an  excellent  publisher,  who  brought 
the  accounts  into  order  and  pressed  for  the  collection 
of  subscriptions.  The  result  was  that  the  subscrip 
tion  list  grew  slowly  but  steadily,  until  in  August, 
1828,  it  contained  3200  names.  In  March,  1830,  when 
Sparks  sold  his  share  in  the  publication,  he  received 
$15,000  for  three-fourths  of  the  entire  property.  The 
other  fourth  he  had  sold  in  1826  to  his  publishing  agent 
for  $4000.  Adding  together  these  two  sums,  we  see 
that  he  had  obtained  $9100  more  than  he  paid  for 
the  property.  Meanwhile,  he  had  received  a  salary 
of  $2200  a  year.  Considering  the  state  of  literature 
at  the  time,  this  was  doing  well. 

1  Prescott  to  George  Bancroft,  March  16, 1833.    Bancroft  MSS. 


68  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Sparks's  relations  with  his  contributors  were  generally 
pleasant.  He  seems  to  have  taken  the  liberty,  as 
every  editor  must,  of  cutting  or  altering  the  material 
sent  him  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  journal.  Sometimes 
he  clearly  went  too  far,  as  we  may  see  in  a  notable  case 
in  1826.  He  had  for  review  a  Greek  lexicon  by  John 
Pickering,  son  of  Timothy  Pickering,  and  custodian  of 
the  Pickering  papers.  Sparks  was  already  interested  in 
historical  documents,  and  he  naturally  wished  to  have 
the  lexicographer  in  a  pleasant  frame  of  mind.  Sev 
eral  persons  had  refused  to  review  the  book  when  he 
appealed  to  George  Bancroft,  then  twenty-six  years 
old  and  a  schoolmaster  in  Northampton.  From  his 
letter  the  following  extract  is  quoted : 

"Write  six  pages  on  the  Lexicon,  if  you  have  no  more  time; 
or  as  many  pages  as  you  like.  It  affords  an  excellent  opportunity 
for  discussing  the  question  of  the  priority  of  Greek  or  Latin  in 
studying  the  languages.  The  fashion  of  beginning  with  Greek  is 
coming  much  in  vogue,  and  will  increase  as  dictionaries  in  Greek 
and  English  multiply.  It  seems  to  me  a  good  notion,  but  it  is  a 
topic  to  discuss  in  the  present  stage  of  things ;  as  well  as  other 
things  connected  therewith." 

Returning  to  the  same  subject  ten  days  later,  he  said : 

"Be  learned,  or  popular,  or  both,  as  you  please.  Criticize  justly 
but  with  good  temper,  and  with  due  respect  for  so  high  authority 
as  Mr.  Pickering.  He  has  great  merits  for  his  literary  ardor  and 
acquisitions,  in  the  midst  of  a  laborious  profession,  and  is  not  to 
be  dealt  lightly  with,  nor  should  his  work  be  examined  with  the 
same  acuteness,  as  one  coming  from  a  professor  of  the  language. 
Besides,  he  makes  no  high  pretensions,  and  in  such  case  it  will 
hardly  be  just  to  be  very  free  with  censure.  I  imagine  he  has 


JARED    SPARKS  69 

accomplished  nearly  all  he  attempted.  Moreover,  his  coadjutors 
seem  to  have  taken  the  greater  share  of  the  work.  And  after  all 
it  professes  to  be  only  a  translation  of  Schrevelius,  and  all  great 
defects  must  be  in  the  original  author.  Mr.  Pickering  may  have 
committed  a  mistake  in  translating  such  an  author.  Of  this  you 
must  judge.  In  short,  treat  the  matter  as  your  judgment  dictates, 
only  take  care  to  discriminate  in  your  praises  and  censures,  both 
as  to  persons  and  things." 

Broad  as  were  these  hints,  they  were  lost  on  Bancroft. 
If  he  was  sensitive  on  anything  it  was  on  his  reputation 
as  a  supporter  of  the  new  German  school  of  Greek 
scholarship ;  and  to  that  school  Schrevelius  was  the 
embodiment  of  error.  Of  the  young  scholar's  review 
the  best  that  could  be  said  was  that  he  pushed  Picker 
ing  aside  and  delivered  his  blows  on  the  back  of  the 
original  author.  Sparks  was  in  dismay.  His  own  let 
ter  to  Bancroft  will  give  us  an  idea  of  what  was  done. 
In  it  were  these  words,  undoubtedly  to  be  interpreted 
as  the  best  face  he  could  put  on  his  conduct : 

"Your  review  is  in  press,  but  the  first  part  a  good  deal  altered. 
It  was  read  to  two  of  our  best  Greek  scholars,  one  of  whom  did 
not  know  who  the  author  was,  and  they  both  said  most  unequivo 
cally,  that  they  thought  your  criticisms  too  severe,  and  your 
general  tone  of  remarks  not  altogether  suited  to  the  dignity  of  the 
subject.  In  these' I  agreed  with  them  perfectly.  By  the  mode  of 
criticizing  which  you  adopted,  Stevens  himself  might  not  only  be 
made  very  imperfect,  but  ridiculous.  You  may  depend  the  article 
as  you  sent  it  would  have  given  no  pleasure  to  anybody,  but  offence 
to  many.  It  was  important  to  retain  the  Scripture  proper  names, 
because  one  object  of  the  Lexicon  is  to  aid  in  reading  the  'O.  &  N. 
Testament,'  and  pupils  must  know  how  to  decline  these  words 
before  they  can  read.  On  the  whole  I  thought  best  to  omit  your 


70  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

verbal  criticisms,  and  I  was  obliged  to  throw  in  two  or  three  short 
paragraphs  of  my  own  to  connect  matters  together.  As  the  thing 
is  of  very  little  importance,  I  presume  you  will  have  no  objection 
to  what  is  done ;  and  if  you  should  I  cannot  help  it,  as  there  was 
no  time  to  deliberate.  Your  observations  on  Greek  Lexicons  gen 
erally  are  so  valuable  that  I  could  not  part  with  them,  and  as 
things  now  stand  the  review  of  the  said  Lexicon  is  a  secondary 
affair  in  the  article.  It  is  headed  'Greek  Lexicography.'  Picker 
ing's  enterprise  was  certainly  a  praiseworthy  one,  vastly  more 
laborious,  than  honorable,  and  the  result  of  criticisms  on  it  should 
not  be  a  severe  censure,  but  rather  a  commendation,  whatever  the 
minor  faults  may  be.  It  is  observable  that  you  do  not  point  out  any 
other  single  work  which  ought  to  have  been  taken  in  preference." 

Bancroft,  of  course,  was  highly  outraged  at  his 
treatment.  He  had  been  made  to  appear  to  condone 
just  the  kind  of  Greek  study  he  had  spent  five  years 
in  trying  to  overthrow.  He  protested  to  the  editor, 
he  demanded  proof-sheets,  and  when  they  came  he 
forbade  the  publication  of  the  piece  as  it  then  was; 
but  Sparks  had  already  printed  the  number  to  the  last 
signature  and  the  article  could  not  be  withdrawn.  It 
is  due  to  Bancroft  that  the  following  extract  be  given 
from  his  letters,  in  order  that  the  reader  may  see  his 
point  of  view.  Taking  up  Sparks's  objections,  he 
exclaimed : 

"But  the  severe  mode  of  criticism  would  make  Stevens  ridiculous ! 
You  cannot  be  very  familiar  with  Stephanus  to  say  that.  The 
mode  of  criticism  is  one  which  I  learnt  in  the  schools  of  the  best 
masters  and  leads  to  the  result  the  article  states  about  Stevens. 
It  is  the  only  fair  criticism,  careful  and  minute :  any  other  is 
superficial  and  deceptive.  But  the  article  would  have  given  no 
pleasure  to  anybody!  That  is  a  mistake.  The  public  is  always 


JARED    SPARKS  71 

with  those  that  tell  the  truth.  It  would  give  offence  to  many! 
I  knew  it  and  told  you  so  beforehand.  You  encouraged  me  to 
write  freely,  and  rightly  said  to  my  fears,  Who  cares?  'It  was 
important,  however,  to  retain  the  Scripture  Proper  names!1  Much 
you  have  examined  the  subject  to  say  that.  Nobody  of  character 
has  advocated  that  opinion  for  more  than  seventy  years  past. 
Valckenaer  and  Buehnken,  and  Wyttenbach,  Schneider,  Riemer, 
and  Passow  are  the  authorities  whom  I  followed,  and  think  they 
were  right,  though  your  two  Boston  advisers  may  remain  of  the 
old  opinion." x 

This  incident  reveals  much  about  Sparks's  idea  of 
the  work  of  an  editor.  Industry,  knowledge  of  what 
would  be  interesting,  and  the  ability  to  keep  his  peri 
odical  abreast  with,  or  even  ahead  of,  the  times,  were 
among  his  excellent  qualifications  for  the  position  of 
editor.  But  he  was  not  willing  to  offend  the  mighty. 
It  was  the  same  trait  which  in  later  life  led  him  to 
soften  the  language  of  Washington's  letters  and  omit 
expressions  which,  as  he  thought,  lowered  the  dignity 
of  him  who  wrote  them.  It  was  the  greatest  weakness 
in  the  achievements  of  an  otherwise  great  historian. 

3.   Early  Historical  Activity 

Why  Sparks  turned  to  history  is  not  evident.  At 
college  he  was  most  interested  in  mathematics  and 
natural  history,  and  later  on  he  went  into  theology, 
giving  himself  for  the  time  being  to  each  subject  with 

1  For  this  correspondence  see  Sparks  to  Bancroft,  Oct.  30,  Nov.  10, 
Dec.  1  and  18,  1826,  and  Jan  2,  1827.  Bancroft  MSS,  Mass.  Histl.  Soc. 
Also  Bancroft  to  Sparks,  Nov.  2,  10,  10  [?],  and  22,  Dec.  5,  6,  and  13,  1826, 
and  Jan.  18,  1827.  Sparks  MSS. 


72  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

the  greatest  energy.  While  in  Baltimore  he  began 
to  write  historical  articles  for  the  North  American, 
dealing  with  such  topics  as  "Internal  Improvements 
in  North  Carolina,"  "Land  Grants  for  Schools,"  and 
"Education  in  Maryland."  For  these  articles  he 
made  extensive  use  of  documentary  materials.  As 
Professor  Adams  remarks,  he  was  by  nature  an  explorer, 
and  he  found  in  the  quest  for  information  in  unsuspected 
places  satisfaction  for  an  impulse  which  under  more 
favorable  conditions  might  have  made  him  a  great 
traveler. 

About  the  time  he  was  at  college  he  became  fas 
cinated  by  the  story  of  John  Ledyard,  a  Connecticut 
Yankee,  who  had  traveled  much  in  Africa,  Asia,  and 
the  Pacific  Islands,  and  who  has  been  called  the  Henry 
M.  Stanley  of  his  day.  Sparks  was  for  exploring 
Africa  himself,  going  into  the  interior  by  way  of 
Morocco,  but  money  was  wanting  and  friends  remon 
strated,  so  he  gave  up  the  hope.  He  determined  to 
do  the  next  best  thing,  that  is,  write  a  life  of  Ledyard. 
During  the  Baltimore  years  and  for  some  time  after 
wards  the  plan  was  in  his  mind.  It  did  not  materialize 
until  1828,  but  it  perhaps  served  to  keep  alive  his 
interest  in  historical  writing,  and  it  may  have  turned 
him  definitely  to  that  kind  of  literature  in  the  days  when 
the  formative  period  was  past.1 

The  year  1823  was  a  critical  point  in  Sparks's 
career;  for  it  was  then  that  he  gave  up  the  ministry. 

1  Adams,  "Life  and  Writings  of  Jared  Sparks,"  I,  93,  165,  180,  375-387. 


JARED    SPARKS  73 

While  in  Boston  and  before  he  decided  to  buy  the 
North  American,  he  wrote  this  paragraph  in  his  diary : 

"Read  a  little,  wrote  a  little.  Meditating  on  the  importance  of 
having  a  new  history  of  America.  Thought  I  might  undertake  it 
some  time  or  other.  No  ordinary  task  to  do  it  properly.  I  would 
go  to  the  foundation,  and  read  everything  on  the  subject.  The 
Ebeling  library  at  Harvard  University,  the  collection  of  books  in 
the  Boston  Athenaeum  and  Historical  Society,  afford  facilities, 
which  cannot  be  enjoyed  elsewhere." * 

A  busy  editor  had  no  time  to  carry  out  such  a  plan, 
but  the  diary  contains  evidence  that  writing  history 
continued  to  appeal  to  Sparks's  imagination.  March 
25,  1824,  he  received  a  letter  from  Charles  Folsom,  an 
old  schoolmate,  proprietor  of  a  press  in  Cambridge, 
which  brought  his  historical  impulses  to  a  head.  "I 
wish  to  publish,"  said  Folsom,  "a  handsome  and  cor 
rect  edition  of  Washington's  writings  complete.  To 
this  end  I  should  wish  to  communicate  with  some  per 
sons,  who  could  and  would  aid  me  to  do  it  in  the  best 
manner.  Who  are  they  at  the  South?"2  The  idea 
of  having  a  complete  edition  of  the  writings  of  Wash 
ington  was  not  new  to  Sparks,  as  he  himself  said. 
Several  small  volumes  of  Washington's  letters  had 
come  out,  most  of  them  containing  letters  written  to 
one  man.  At  that  time  it  was  a  favorite  idea  for  a  man 
who  published  his  own  recollections  to  include  in  the 

1  Under  date  Aug.  18,  1823.     See  also  the  No.  Am.  Rev.,  Jan.  1826, 
Vol.  22,  p.  221. 

2  Sparks  MSS.     Also  in  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  I,  390. 


74  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

book  some  letters  of  Washington ;  for  they  gave  stand 
ing  to  any  volume  in  which  they  were  found. 

Sparks  knew  that  a  large  collection  of  Washington's 
letters  was  preserved  at  Mount  Vernon,  in  the  pos 
session  of  Justice  Bushrod  Washington,  of  the  supreme 
court,  a  nephew  of  George  Washington.  To  the  judge 
he  wrote  on  behalf  of  Folsom,  and  received  a  refusal. 
He  seems  to  have  expected  it,  and  to  have  determined 
that  in  spite  of  it  he  himself  would  publish  an  edition 
of  Washington.  April  23,  five  weeks  before  he  knew 
for  certain  whether  or  not  his  friend's  request  would 
be  granted,  he  wrote  in  his  diary:  "Conversed  with 
Dr.  Mease,  [of  Philadelphia,]  on  the  means  of  collect 
ing  Washington's  papers  for  the  purpose  of  publish 
ing  a  complete  edition  of  his  works,  a  project  which 
I  have  for  some  time  had  in  view." 

We  hear  nothing  more  of  Folsom  in  connection  with 
the  enterprise;  but  Sparks  did  not  lose  interest.  For 
a  year  and  a  half  he  wrote  to  many  persons  inquiring 
about  Washington  letters.  He  learned  that  a  great 
many  existed  but  that  they  were  widely  scattered. 
He  also  learned  that  Washington  kept  copies  of  most 
of  his  letters  and  that  they  were  probably  at  Mount 
Vernon,  and  he  decided  to  make  another  effort  to  see 
them.  Preparing  a  frank  and  intelligent  statement  of 
his  plans  he  laid  it  before  Judge  Washington,  adding 
that  he  would  find  his  labors  much  shortened  if  he 
could  get  all  the  papers  he  needed  for  his  work  in  the 
convenient  and  authentic  form  in  which  Washington 


JARED    SPARKS  75 

left  them.  Again  the  master  of  Mount  Vernon  was 
unyielding.  He  was  about  to  publish,  he  said,  three 
volumes  of  Washington's  letters  and  more  might 
follow,  a  work  in  which  he  had  the  co-operation  of  the 
Chief  Justice  Marshall.  Sparks  was  not  discouraged. 
He  appealed  to  his  friends,  particularly  to  Judge  Story, 
who  became  his  active  champion.  Another  letter 
went  to  the  chief  justice,  to  whom  Story  also  spoke,  and 
it  brought  the  encouraging  assurance  that  "if  the 
publication  he  [Judge  Washington]  is  about  to  make 
shall  defeat  the  more  enlarged  and  perfect  edition 
which  you  propose,  it  will  be  a  circumstance  which 
I  shall  regret.  It  is  not  the  object  of  Mr.  Washington 
to  attach  any  notes  or  illustrations  to  the  publication 
he  proposes  making,  but  simply  to  select  some  of  the 
most  interesting  of  the  letters  and  to  offer  them  to 
the  public."  1 

By  this  time  Sparks's  interest  was  so  much  aroused 
that  he  was  planning  to  extend  his  investigations  to  the 
general  field  of  the  revolution ;  and  to  gain  a  clear 
idea  of  what  lay  before  him  he  made  a  trip  through 
the  South  Atlantic  states  between  March  22  and  July 
7,  1826.  He  examined  state  archives  and  left  orders 
for  copies  to  be  made,  and  extended  his  circle  of  ac 
quaintances.  The  journal  of  his  travels  is  rich  in 
information  touching  the  state  of  documents.  On 
his  return  he  inspected  the  archives  of  the  middle 
states,  except  New  York,  which  he  visited  —  and 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  I,  405. 


76  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

New  England  also  —  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year.1 
He  was  much  interested  in  the  state  of  society  of  the 
far  southern  states,  where  he  was  well  received  and 
afforded  every  desirable  facility  to  promote  his  object. 
His  health,  never  very  robust,  was  benefited  by  the 
journey,  and  his  enthusiasm  for  American  history  was 
greatly  increased.  "I  have  got  a  passion  for  Revo 
lutionary  history,"  he  exclaimed,  on  his  return,  "and 
the  more  I  look  into  it  the  more  I  am  convinced  that 
no  complete  history  of  the  American  Revolution  has 
been  written.  The  materials  have  never  been  col 
lected  ;  they  are  still  in  the  archives  of  the  states,  and 
in  the  hands  of  individuals." 

He  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  letters  of  Washington, 
and  it  happened  that  twice  on  his  journey  in  the  South 
he  met  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  the  man  who  could 
most  help  him  in  his  quest.  The  first  encounter  was 
in  Richmond,  and  Sparks's  journal  contains  such  an 
interesting  picture  of  the  great  man's  home  that  it 
is  quoted  entirely.  It  reads  : 

'*  Called  on  Chief  Justice  Marshall ;  entered  his  yard  through  a 
broken  wooden  gate,  fastened  by  a  leather  strap  and  opened  with 
some  difficulty,  rang,  and  an  old  lady  came  to  the  door.  I  asked 
if  Judge  Marshall  was  at  home.  'No/  said  she,  'he  is  not  in  the 
house ;  he  may  be  in  the  office/  and  pointed  to  a  small  brick  build 
ing  in  one  corner  of  the  yard.  I  knocked  at  the  door  and  it  was 
opened  by  a  tall,  venerable  looking  man,  dressed  with  extreme 
plainness,  and  having  an  air  of  affability  in  his  manners.  I  intro- 

1  The  journals  are  given  in  full  in  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  I,  414-572. 

2  Ibid.,  509. 


JARED    SPARKS  77 

duced  myself  as  the  person  who  had  just  received  a  letter  from  him 
concerning  General  Washington's  letters,  and  he  immediately 
entered  into  conversation  on  that  subject.  He  appeared  to  think 
favorably  of  my  project,  but  intimated  that  all  the  papers  were 
entirely  at  the  disposal  of  Judge  Washington.  He  said  that  he 
had  read  with  care  all  General  Washington's  letters  in  the  copies 
left  by  him,  and  intimated  that  a  selection  only  could  with  pro 
priety  be  printed,  as  there  was  in  many  of  them  a  repetition,  not 
only  of  ideas,  but  of  language.  This  was  a  necessary  consequence 
of  his  writing  to  so  many  persons  on  the  same  subjects,  and  nearly 
at  the  same  time.  He  spoke  to  me  of  the  history  of  Virginia ;  said 
Stith's  History  and  Beverly's  were  of  the  highest  authority,  and 
might  be  relied  on.  Of  Burk  he  only  remarked  that  the  author 
was  fond  of  indulging  his  imagination,  'But,'  he  added  in  a  good- 
natured  way,  'there  is  no  harm  in  a  little  ornament,  I  suppose.' 
He  neither  censured  nor  commended  the  work.  .  .  .  Such  and 
other  things  were  the  topics  of  conversation,  till  the  short  hour  of 
a  ceremonious  visit  had  run  out.  I  retired  much  pleased  with  the 
urbanity  and  kindly  manners  of  the  Chief  Justice.  There  is  con 
sistency  in  all  things  about  him, —  his  house,  grounds,  office,  him 
self,  bear  marks  of  a  primitive  simplicity  and  plainness  rarely  to 
be  seen  combined."  l 

Returning,  Sparks  arrived  in  Richmond  on  May  10. 
He  noted  in  his  journal : 

"Met  Judge  Marshall  last  evening  at  the  town  of  Monroe,  on 
the  Roanoke  River.  He  was  on  his  way  to  hold  his  circuit  court 
in  Raleigh,  and  traveling  in  a  sulky.  He  said  he  much  preferred 
the  stage  for  its  expedition,  but  could  not  travel  nights.  Passed 
half  an  hour  very  agreeably  with  him.  ...  A  case  of  libel  is  to 
come  on  at  Raleigh,  which  the  Judge  seems  to  dread  exceedingly. 
It  is  a  case  between  two  clergymen,  Mr.  Whitaker  and  Dr. 
McPheeters.  A  good  deal  of  excitement  exists  on  the  subject,  and 
the  decision  must  involve  principles  which  present  legal  difficulties 
and  perplexities."  2 

«*.,  421.  *1W.,  451. 


78  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Back  in  Boston,  Sparks  made  another  appeal  to 
Judge  Washington.  He  was  convinced  he  could  not 
proceed  without  access  to  the  collection  at  Mount 
Vernon,1  but  he  was  careful  not  to  let  the  conviction 
appear  in  his  letter.  On  the  contrary,  he  announced 
that  he  had  found  so  much  material  that  he  was  "very 
confident  of  procuring  nearly  everything  which  can 
throw  light  on  the  public  character  of  General  Wash 
ington,"  and  he  only  regretted  that  through  failure 
to  have  access  to  the  Mount  Vernon  collection  there 
would  be  some  imperfections  in  his  work.  Then  he 
played  his  last  card.  He  had  learned  that  the  judge 
had  offered  to  sell  the  copyright  of  three  or  five  vol 
umes  of  Washington  letters  to  a  Philadelphia  publisher 
for  $10,000.  On  this  hint  he  now  offered  the  judge 
half  the  profits  above  cost  of  publishing  and  of  col 
lecting  materials,  on  condition  that  the  Mount  Vernon 
papers  be  placed  freely  at  his  disposal,  to  be  used 
as  he  saw  fit.  The  recipient  of  the  letter  consulted 
the  chief  justice,  who  advised  acceptance,  and  on  this 
basis  the  matter  was  settled. 

This  favorable  termination  of  his  efforts  greatly 
pleased  Sparks ;  and  in  January,  1827,  he  found  him 
self  alone  at  Mount  Vernon  with  the  coveted  manu 
scripts  in  his  hands.  They  proved  richer  than  he  had 
anticipated.  Forty  thousand  letters,  most  of  them 
copied  into  letter-books,  were  before  him.  Three 
happy  months  were  spent  in  making  a  superficial 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  I,  417. 


JARED    SPARKS  79 

examination,  with  the  result  that  he  realized  that  he 
could  not  select  what  was  most  valuable  without 
giving  himself  to  a  long  study  of  the  contents.  He  then 
appealed  to  the  owner  for  permission  to  take  the  papers 
to  Boston,  where  he  could  examine  them  at  his  leisure. 
Permission  was  given,  and  he  returned  to  his  home  with 
the  treasure  safely  stowed. 

By  this  time  Sparks  was  one  of  the  heroes  of  Bos 
ton's  literary  circle.  "You  are  our  standing  boast 
and  delight,"  Edward  Everett  had  said  1  in  1822.  To 
bring  back  the  papers  of  the  most  distinguished  Ameri 
can  made  him  still  more  a  marked  man.  Boston  hailed 
the  feat  with  admiration,  and  probably  no  book  that 
Sparks  wrote  brought  him  more  consideration  from 
those  who  liked  him  best.  Samuel  A.  Eliot  wrote  to 
congratulate  him,  but  added  shrewdly  that  he  hoped 
the  judge  did  not  force  Sparks  to  promise  too  large 
a  share  of  the  proceeds  of  the  publication.2  Miss 
Storrow,  probably  the  truest  friend  Sparks  then  had, 
wrote:  "I  hear  you  are  the  richest,  the  busiest,  and 
the  happiest  man  in  New  England,  perhaps  in  the 
world.  Long  may  all  this  continue ! "  3  William  H. 
Eliot  wrote  that  he  longed  to  touch  the  manuscripts 
which  Washington  himself  had  handled. 

The  general  expectation  that  Sparks  would  make  a 
great  deal  of  money  out  of  the  "  Washington  "  was  not 

1  To  Sparks,  Feb.  4,  1822.    Sparks  MSS. 

2  To  Sparks,  March  30  and  May  24,  1827.     Sparks  MSS. 

3  Miss  A.  G.  Storrow  to  Sparks,  June  23,  1827.     Sparks  MSS. 


80  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

realized.  In  1837,  when  the  last  volume  of  the  work 
had  been  published,  he  had  received  from  its  sales 
$30,741.00,  and  his  expenses  for  travel,  stereotype 
plates,  etc.,  amounted  to  $15,356.37.  The  remainder 
he  divided  into  two  equal  parts.  One  was  for  himself, 
and  the  other  was  divided  between  the  heirs  of  Wash 
ington  and  Marshall.  From  that  time  the  work  was 
published  on  a  royalty  basis,  but  the  returns  were 
always  shared  as  just  stated.1  The  royalties  were 
never  large.  From  this  arrangement  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  chief  justice  was  not  entirely  disinterested 
when  in  1827  he  advised  Judge  Washington  to  accept 
Sparks's  offer. 

The  Washington  letters  were  kept  in  a  fireproof 
building  while  in  Boston,  and  Sparks  had  an  index 
made.  When  he  had  finished  with  them  they  were 
returned  to  the  owners  without  loss  or  damage.  His 
use  of  the  collection  called  attention  to  its  value,  and 
in  1834  it  was  purchased  by  the  national  government 
and  deposited  in  the  library  of  the  state  department. 
It  now  forms  the  most  precious  part  of  the  manu 
scripts  collection  of  the  library  of  congress. 

4.    Twelve  Fruitful  Years 

A  list  of  the  editor's  own  articles  in  the  North  Ameri 
can  Review  shows  that  after  he  embarked  on  his  new 
enterprise,  in  1827,  he  wrote  little  for  that  journal. 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  295  n. 


JARED    SPARKS  81 

History  now  absorbed  all  his  enthusiasm.  He  un 
doubtedly  expected  to  go  forward  with  the  work  of 
editing  and  publishing  the  letters,  a  task  for  which 
three  or  four  years  would  have  been  adequate.  But, 
like  many  another  explorer,  he  was  dazzled  by  the  oppor 
tunities  opening  before  him;  and  before  the  "Wash 
ington  "  was  completed  in  1837  he  had  undertaken 
six  other  books.1  Although  he  brought  to  completion 
all  but  one  of  these  additional  enterprises,  the  scat 
tering  of  energy  told  on  him  in  the  long  run.  The 
various  works  demanded  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
labor,  and  its  completion  probably  left  him  without 
impulse  for  other  writing.  From  1840  to  his  death 
in  1866  he  wrote  nearly  nothing,  completing  five  of 
the  lives  in  the  second  series  of  the  "American  Biog 
raphy,"  the  "Correspondence  of  the  Revolution,"  in 
four  volumes — a  work  planned  at  Mount  Vernon  in  1827 
—  and  a  few  brief  papers  and  newspaper  sketches. 

One  of  the  distractions  was  the  collection  of  histori 
cal  materials  relating  to  the  revolution,  involving  a 
trip  to  Europe  in  1828-1829,  which  will  be  discussed  in 
another  place.  Of  his  writings  that  now  followed  one 
after  the  other  with  bewildering  rapidity  the  following 
list  contains  the  important  titles : 

1  Sparks  tried  to  extend  his  labors  further  afield.  He  approached  the 
family  of  Alexander  Hamilton  to  edit  the  papers  of  the  first  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  and  he  wished  to  edit  the  papers  of  Lafayette  and  John  Jay.  In 
1833  he  wrote  to  Peter  Force  with  an  idea  of  taking  over  the  "  American 
Archives."  Sparks  to  Force,  Dec.  10,  1833.  Force  MSS,  Library  of 
Congress.  See  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  334. 

G 


82  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

1.  "Life   and   Travels   of   John   Ledyard"    (1828). 
This  book  had  long  been  on  his  hands,   and  Miss 
Storrow,  his  good  angel  in  years  of  struggle,  many 
times  chided  him  lest  the  demands  of  editorial  work 
should  defeat  its  production.     She  had  faith  in  the  au 
thor  and  was  concerned  at  the  prospect  that  he  would 
continue  to  do   small   things/  which  were  not  worthy 
of  his  ability.     Sparks  took  up  Ledyard  in  earnest  in 
1827,  after  his  return  from  Mount  Vernon,  as  though  he 
meant  to  clear  the  way  for  larger  things. 

2.  "The  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  American 
Revolution"  (12  volumes,  1829-30).     This  work  was 
published  under  a  contract  by  which  the  federal  gov 
ernment  took  a  large  number  of  copies.     It  was  under 
taken  under  an  act  of  congress  of  1818  authorizing 
the  president  to  make  arrangements  for  the  publica 
tion.     Sparks  found  the  arrangement  profitable  and 
wished  to  have  the  work  continued  from  1783  to  1789. 
Through  the  efforts  of  friends  a  bill  to  that  end  was 
passed  through  congress,  leaving  to  the  secretary  of 
state  the  duty  of  making  the  contract,  and  at  that 
time  Van  Buren  was  secretary.     When  Sparks  was 
ready  to  make  the  contract,  he  learned  that  it  had 
already  been  made  —  with  Blair  and  Rives,  publishers 
of  the  Globe,  the  Jackson  organ.1 

3.  "The    American    Almanac    and    Repository    of 
Useful  Knowledge"  (Vol.  I,  1830).     Sparks  furnished 
the  statistics  and  Professor  Farrar,  of  Harvard,  wrote 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  153. 


JARED    SPARKS  83 

the  astronomical  observations.  They  owned  the  work 
jointly.  The  first  edition  of  three  thousand  copies 
was  quickly  sold  at  a  good  profit,  but  the  labor  was  so 
heavy  that  Sparks  transferred  his  share  to  his  partner, 
who  continued  the  "Almanac"  for  many  years. 

4.  "The  Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris"   (3  volumes, 
1832).     Sparks  undertook  to  write  this  book  because 
it  was  the  only  way  to  obtain  access  to  the  papers  of 
Morris.     He  wrote  a  biography  which  filled  the  first 
volume  and  surrendered  the  second  and  third  to  selec 
tions  from  the  correspondence  and  other  papers.     The 
whole  was  done  within  a  year;    and  it  has  not  been 
highly  esteemed  by  posterity. 

5.  "The  Life  and  Writings  of  George  Washington" 
(12  volumes,  1834-37).     The   first   volume  contained 
a  life  of  Washington,  and  in  order  that  it  might  con 
tain  the  maturest  results  of  his  work  on  the  papers 
in  his  hands,  he  kept  it  back,  until  the  others  had 
been  sent  to  the  press.     Volume  II  contained  Wash 
ington's  letters  before  the  revolution.     Volumes  III 
to  VIII  inclusive  contained  the  official  and  private 
letters  during  the  revolution.     Volume  IX  contained 
the  private  letters  from  the  end  of  the  revolution  to 
the  beginning  of  the  first  presidency.     Volumes  X  and 
XI   had   Washington's    letters,    public    and    private, 
during    his    presidency.     Volume  XII   contained  his 
speeches,    proclamations,    and   messages    to   congress. 
In  appendices  were  incorporated  some  valuable  papers 
which  had  been  discovered  through  the  industry  of  the 


84  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

editor.  A  discussion  of  the  manner  in  which  these 
volumes  were  edited  is  deferred  to  another  page  in  this 
book. 

6.  "The  Works  of  Benjamin  Franklin;  with  Notes, 
and  a  Life  of  the  Author"  (10  volumes,  1836-40). 
In  1832  Sparks  learned  that  Edward  Everett  was 
thinking  of  writing  a  biography  of  Franklin.  He  has 
tened  to  inform  his  friend  that  he  himself  had  made 
a  plan  four  years  earlier  to  bring  out  a  complete  col 
lection  of  Franklin's  works.  As  if  to  preempt  the 
field,  he  sent  at  once  to  the  printers  a  small  collection 
of  letters  which  came  out  in  1833  with  the  title,  "A 
Collection  of  the  Familiar  Letters  and  Miscellaneous 
Papers  of  Benjamin  Franklin."  They  dealt  with 
Franklin's  personality  and  were  slightly  political. 

The  larger  work  was  begun  about  1834.  It  con 
sisted  of  a  life  in  one  volume  and  nine  volumes  of  let 
ters  and  other  papers.  As  the  work  progressed  sev 
eral  rich  collections  of  papers  were  found  which  pre 
viously  had  been  overlooked.  Up  to  that  time  it  was 
the  fashion  to  paint  Franklin  as  a  cunning  man  who 
lacked  sincerity.  Sparks  depicted  him  as  a  man  of 
sagacity,  honorable  in  his  dealings  with  his  fellow-men, 
patient  with  the  weaknesses  of  others,  and  sincere 
in  his  actions  and  opinions.  Next  to  the  "Washing 
ton"  the  "Life  of  Franklin"  was  Sparks's  best  work. 

Sparks  knew  that  he  had  not  discovered  all  of  Frank 
lin's  papers.  William  Temple  Franklin  had  taken 
a  large  collection  to  London,  using  some  of  them  in 


JARED    SPARKS  85 

the  three-volume  edition  of  his  father's  papers  pub 
lished  in  1817-19.  The  edition  sold  poorly  and  the 
publishers  refused  to  continue  it.  The  entire  collec 
tion  of  the  papers  remained  in  the  possession  of  the 
family  of  William  Temple  Franklin  after  his  death 
in  1823.  But  Sparks  was  denied  access  to  them  in 
1829,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  wanted  to  throw 
light  on  a  claim  against  the  government.  After  a 
while  they  disappeared,  to  turn  up  again  about  1850 
in  a  tailor's  shop  in  London.  They  came  into  the 
hands  of  Henry  Stevens,  who  applied  to  Sparks  for 
information  about  them.  A  correspondence  ensued 
in  which  Sparks  proposed  to  edit  the  papers  in  a  new 
edition  of  his  own  work.  Stevens  agreed,  but  he  was 
unable  to  send  the  papers  to  America  because  they 
had  been  pledged  to  George  Peabody  to  secure  a 
loan.  They  were  finally  purchased  by  the  United 
States  government  and  placed  in  the  library  of  the 
state  department,  whence  they  were  transferred  to 
the  library  of  congress. 

7.  "The  Library  of  American  Biography"  (first 
series,  10  volumes,  1834-38 :  second  series,  15  vol 
umes,  1844-47).  The  plan  for  the  work  was  made  in 
1832.  Several  persons  were  to  write  short  lives  of  emi 
nent  Americans,  and  these  were  to  be  published  in  con 
venient  volumes,  each  containing  from  one  to  four  of 
the  lives.  Sparks  at  first  agreed  to  get  out  only  four 
volumes  and  he  had  not  more  than  begun  the  work  on 
them  when  he  found  himself  so  busily  engaged  with 


86  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

other  things  that  he  tried  to  induce  George  Bancroft  to 
take  his  place.1  The  publishers,  however,  insisted  that 
he  should  remain  editor,  and  he  went  on  with  the  work. 
The  biographies  proved  very  popular  and  were  con 
tinued  through  ten  volumes.  After  a  while  the  second 
series  was  projected.  The  lives  were  generally  well 
written,  most  of  them  being  done  on  the  basis  of 
original  research.  Although  now  superseded  by  works 
of  better  trained  men,  they  remain  for  the  most  part  a 
valuable  collection  of  popular  biography. 

Sparks  believed  that  the  history  of  a  country  could 
be  presented  to  the  reader  in  a  series  of  properly  related 
biographies.  "There  are  three  kinds  of  biographical 
writing,"  he  said.  "First,  historical  biography,  which 
admits  of  copious  selections  from  letters  and  other 
original  papers.  Secondly,  memoirs,  which  method 
is  somewhat  allied  to  the  above,  but  more  rambling 
and  relating  more  to  the  affairs  of  a  private  nature. 
Thirdly,  personal  narrative,  in  which  the  individual 
is  always  kept  before  the  reader,  and  the  incidents 
are  made  to  follow  each  other  in  consecutive  order. 
This  last  is  the  most  difficult  to  execute,  because  it 
requires  a  clear  and  spirited  style,  discrimination  in 
selecting  facts,  and  judgment  in  arranging  them  so  as 
to  preserve  just  proportions."  In  neither  of  these 
divisions  does  Sparks  include  that  kind  of  biography 
which  may  be  called  "the  lives  and  times"  of  eminent 

1  Sparks  to  Bancroft,  Nov.  22,  Dec.  1,  1832;  April  22,  Sept.  24,  Oct.  3, 
1833.  Bancroft  MSS,  Mass.  Histl.  Soc. 


JARED    SPARKS  87 

men,  a  kind  of  writing  in  which  history  is  made  to 
hang  around  the  actions  of  some  prominent  political 
character.  To  him  the  biographer  was  a  portrait 
painter  whose  medium  was  words  rather  than  color, 
and  whose  art  consisted  in  the  skillful  manipulation 
of  light  and  shades,  intelligent  grasp  of  the  principles 
of  composition  and  values,  and  the  wise  utilization  of 
backgrounds. 

8.  "Correspondence  of  the  American  Revolution; 
being  Letters  of  Eminent  Men  to  George  Washing 
ton"  (4  volumes,  1853).  When  Sparks  began  to 
examine  the  Washington  papers  he  was  struck  with 
the  many  excellent  letters  they  contained  from  promi 
nent  revolutionary  men  to  Washington.  He  formed 
the  plan  at  once  to  issue  a  special  work  in  which  they 
should  be  included.  His  design  was  not  carried  out 
for  many  years,  but  in  1853,  the  year  in  which  he  re 
signed  the  presidency  of  Harvard,  the  work  came  from 
the  press.  It  was  not  a  difficult  task,  since  his  work 
on  it  consisted  in  merely  selecting  the  letters  to  be 
published. 

These  eight  works  contain  sixty-nine  volumes, 
most  of  them  octavo.  They  occupy  a  large  place  on 
the  shelves  of  a  library.  Think  of  what  an  American 
history  section  was  before  they  were  published. 
Holmes's  "Annals,"  Pitkins's  "History,"  Ramsay's  and 
Gordon's  books  on  the  revolution,  and  some  broken 
attempts  to  give  the  letters  of  Washington  and  Frank 
lin  :  how  small  they  seem  by  the  side  of  the  works  of 


88  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

a  man  who  essayed  to  publish  all  that  was  important 
in  the  papers  of  men  like  Washington,  Franklin,  and 
Gouverneur  Morris,  and  who  gathered  up  in  twenty- 
five  volumes  the  lives  of  the  great  Americans  who  had 
founded  the  national  life.  However  we  may  criticize 
them,  these  books  changed  the  face  of  our  historical 
literature ;  and  the  mind  that  could  conceive  the  proj 
ect  and  carry  it  to  completion  demands  respectful 
consideration. 

In  1830  to  1840  thoughtful  people  in  the  United 
States  had  just  awakened  to  the  importance  of  his 
torical  documents.  It  was  the  day  of  the  publication 
of  the  "Annals  of  Congress,"  the  "Debates  in  Con 
gress,"  the  "American  State  Papers,"  and  the  "Ameri 
can  Archives."  Members  of  congress  eagerly  received 
these  works  from  a  generous  government  and  placed 
them  in  their  libraries  in  the  belief  that  they  were 
going  to  read  them.  The  reviewers  began  to  talk  of 
a  documentary  history  as  the  only  real  way  in  which 
history  was  to  be  written,  having  in  mind  that  pos 
terity,  if  not  themselves,  would  while  away  its  hours 
of  ease  poring  over  collections  of  laws,  state  papers, 
and  political  correspondence.  To  what  extremes  this 
feeling  ran  is  seen  in  the  sales  of  Sparks's  works.  In 
1852  over  seven  thousand  sets  of  the  "Writings  of 
Washington"  had  been  sold.  When  a  publisher  under 
took  to  bring  out  a  new  and  more  complete  edition 
in  1889,  he  limited  it  to  seven  hundred  and  fifty  copies ; 
and  in  1889  our  population  was  nearly  four  times  as 


JARED    SPARKS  89 

great  as  in  1834  when  Sparks's  edition  began  to  be 
printed. 

Sparks  himself  was  fascinated  by  the  idea  of  writ 
ing  a  documentary  history  of  the  revolution.  Into 
what  definite  shape  he  would  have  wrought  such  a 
book  it  is  not  possible  to  say ;  for  his  plans  were  never 
announced.  But  the  idea  was  always  in  his  mind. 
It  was  behind  all  his  editing  and  collecting  of  materials. 
In  1838  he  said  of  the  completion  of  the  "  Franklin  " : 
"With  this  work  I  trust  my  editing  career  will  end. 
I  have  planned  a  history  of  the  American  Revolu 
tion,  on  an  extended  scale,  having  studied  that  sub 
ject  at  the  fountain-head  for  ten  years.  I  know  not 
when  it  will  be  executed.  I  intended  going  to  Europe 
the  present  year,  for  the  purpose  of  completing  my  col 
lection  of  materials,  but  amidst  the  late  wreck  of  human 
things  I  have  lost  almost  my  whole  property,  and  am 
obliged  to  abandon  the  project  for  some  time,  and 
perhaps  forever."  l  The  universal  wreck  to  which 
he  alluded  was  the  panic  of  1837,  which  carried  away 
the  American  Stationers'  Company,  a  publishing 
house  in  which  he  was  largely  interested.  His  dis 
couragement  was  temporary,  and  in  1840  he  made  a 
second  visit  to  Europe,  seeking  documents.  "Having 
finished  the  literary  undertakings  which  have  been  so 
long  on  my  hands,"  he  said,  "what  could  I  do  better 
than  to  engage  in  another?  I  am  preparing  to  write 
a  formidable  history  of  the  American  Revolution. 

i  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  346. 


90  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Most  of  the  important  materials  exist  only  in  the  Brit 
ish  and  French  offices."  1  He  appeared  very  earnest 
in  his  project,  so  much  so  that  he  was  alarmed  at  the 
thought  that  Bancroft  was  going  to  write  about  the 
revolution,  and  suggested  that  Prescott  induce  him 
to  write  about  Philip  II.2  The  years  passed  and  the 
great  work  made  no  progress.  Probably  that  irreso 
lution  which  Miss  Storrow  had  detected  in  his  early 
life  now  possessed  him,  once  the  great  rush  of  labors 
was  ended.  At  any  rate,  the  "  Documentary  History 
of  the  Revolution  "  was  not  written.  His  biographer 
tells  us  it  became  a  subject  to  be  avoided  in  the  Sparks 
household.3 

5.    Collector  of  Historical  Documents 

No  passion  is  more  exhilarating  than  that  of  the 
collector,  and  if  ever  a  man  had  reason  to  delight  in 
it,  Sparks,  who  found  a  virgin  field  before  him,  was 
the  man.  But  collecting  has  its  perils  for  him  who 
would  be  a  historian  :  it  may  become  the  object  rather 
than  the  means  for  reaching  an  object.  Whether 
or  not  Sparks  carried  it  to  this  excess  is  difficult  to 
say.  It  is  certain  that  in  the  condition  of  historical 
materials  then  existing  he  could  not  have  written 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  378. 

2  Ibid.,  293  n. 

3  Ibid.,  554.     Professor  Adams  excuses   Sparks  on  the  ground  that  he 
could  not  use  his  right  hand  with  comfort  after  1851  and  that  he  had  many 
letters  to  write.     But  Sparks  had  ten  good  years  before  1851,  and  the 
letters  could  have  been  declined. 


JARED    SPARKS  91 

books  without  first  amassing  materials.  It  is  also 
certain  that  his  researches  stimulated  in  a  notable 
way  the  collection  and  preservation  of  materials.  He, 
George  Bancroft,  and  Peter  Force,  all  working  to  the 
same  end,  set  many  smaller  men  to  work,  and  the 
result  was  seen  in  the  local  collections.  They  made 
the  thirties  and  forties  brilliant.  Moreover,  their 
influence  reached  the  wealthy  collectors,  who  began 
to  lay  the  foundations  for  private  collections,  which 
were  eventually  to  become  rich  features  of  great 
libraries.  In  this  movement  Sparks  may  claim  to 
have  been  the  first  in  point  of  time  among  the  col 
lectors  of  documents  in  his  day. 

His  first  appearance  in  the  role  was  in  1827,  when 
he  made  his  journey  in  the  South.  He  was  already 
planning  for  the  great  work  which  he  never  began, 
the  history  of  the  revolution.  Passing  rapidly  through 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina,  he  began 
the  labors  of  research  at  Charleston.  The  people 
received  him  most  cordially,  but  they  had  little  to 
show.  "Inquire  about  papers,"  he  wrote  in  his  journal, 
"no  one  knows  anything  on  the  subject,  but  all  are 
ready  to  mention  numerous  other  persons  who  are 
presumed  to  be  fully  informed  of  the  matter." 

Next  he  went  to  Milledgeville,  then  the  capital  of 
Georgia.  There  he  found  a  small  number  of  papers 
that  were  worth  copying,  and  gave  orders  accordingly. 
Thence  he  went  to  Columbia,  where  he  was  cor 
dially  received  by  the  faculty  of  the  university.  He 


92  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

examined  the  records  in  the  public  offices,  and  gave 
orders  for  copies  to  be  made  of  a  small  number  of 
papers.  Next  he  went  to  Raleigh,  where,  to  his  grati 
fication,  he  found  the  records  in  an  excellent  condi 
tion.  A  liberal  selection  was  made  and  copies  ordered. 
The  spirit  of  resistance  to  British  authority  which 
early  manifested  itself  in  the  colony  of  North  Caro 
lina  impressed  him  forcibly.  "Perusing  the  journals 
all  day,"  he  wrote  in  the  diary;  "find  much  to  my 
purpose,  and  am  surprised  to  see  at  how  early  a  period, 
and  with  how  much  resolution,  the  people  of  North 
Carolina  manifested  their  disapprobation  of  the  Eng 
lish  government."  *  From  Raleigh  he  went  to  Rich 
mond,  where  his  examination  yielded  much  fruit.  Going 
further  north  he  visited  Annapolis,  Harrisburg,  Phila 
delphia,  Dover,  Trenton,  and  New  York.  The  journey 
was  one  of  exploration  and  he  brought  back,  besides  a 
mass  of  copies,  a  thirst  for  further  acquisitions. 

He  had,  however,  seen  enough  of  the  situation  to 
understand  the  difficulties  against  which  a  man  must 
contend  who  at  that  time  attempted  to  write  a  his 
tory  of  the  revolution.  "The  more  I  look  into  it,"  he 
said,  "the  more  I  am  convinced  that  no  complete  his 
tory  of  the  American  Revolution  has  been  written. 
The  materials  have  never  been  collected ;  they  are 
still  in  the  archives  of  the  states,  and  in  the  hands  of 
individuals.  During  my  tour  I  have  examined  the 
public  offices  of  every  state  south  of  New  York,  looked 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  I,  443. 


JARED    SPARKS  93 

at  all  the  files  of  revolutionary  correspondence  and 
the  journals  of  that  period,  and  have  procured  copies 
of  everything  most  valuable."  l  Later  in  the  year 
he  took  a  journey  through  New  England  and  New 
York  examining  the  archives  and  making  copies.  At 
the  end  of  this  journey  he  had  a  better  knowledge  of 
the  condition  and  worth  of  American  public  documents 
than  any  other  man  then  living. 

In  all  these  travels  he  had  been  much  assisted  by 
the  fact  that  he  was  a  well-known  public  character. 
Throughout  the  country  he  had  friends,  many  of  them 
made  during  the  years  when  he  was  the  rising  hope  of 
the  Unitarians.  As  the  editor  of  the  leading  literary 
review  in  the  United  States  he  was  also  a  marked  man. 
His  lack  of  prejudices  and  his  evident  superiority 
in  intellectual  matters,  together  with  a  pleasant  but 
dignified  bearing,  opened  all  doors  to  him. 

Sparks's  next  care  was  to  inspect  the  archives  of 
Europe  so  far  as  they  might  be  supposed  to  contain 
papers  relating  to  his  country.  Up  to  that  time  those 
Americans  who  had  written  about  the  revolution 
had  been  content  to  rely  on  American  documents. 
If  they  attempted  to  get  the  British  point  of  view,  it 
was  in  Dodsley's  "Annual  Register,"  or  in  some 
Briton's  published  reminiscences.  Sparks  had  seen 
enough  of  the  letters,  reports,  and  orders  issued  on 
the  American  side  to  know  that  just  such  documents 
existed  on  the  British  side,  probably  better  written 

1  Ibid.,  I,  509. 


94  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

originally  and  more  fully  preserved.  No  American 
had  asked  to  see  these  papers,  and  it  was  not  known 
that  they  would  be  shown.  He  went  abroad,  therefore, 
on  an  errand  which  could  not  but  be  considered  uncer 
tain.  He  was  to  ask  the  British  government  to  show 
him  the  British  side  of  a  bitter  controversy  then  only 
forty -five  years  ended. 

Difficult  as  his  task  was,  no  other  American  was 
better  qualified  to  perform  it.  He  was  the  editor  of 
our  only  American  review  that  had  standing  in  Great 
Britain.  He  was  a  man  of  marked  culture,  accus 
tomed  to  the  best  American  society,  and  as  apt  as 
any  of  his  countrymen  to  be  at  ease  in  the  literary 
circles  of  Europe.  At  that  time,  more  than  in  the 
present  century,  the  upper  circle  of  London  society 
was  ready  to  show  honor  to  an  interesting  stranger. 
To  this  circle  came  Sparks  with  his  hands  full  of  letters 
of  introduction.  Some  were  from  prominent  Ameri 
cans,  Daniel  Webster,  Dr.  Channing,  Henry  Clay, 
and  William  H.  Prescott;  others,  probably  the  most 
valuable  of  all  for  his  purposes,  were  from  Captain 
Basil  Hall,  the  distinguished  traveler,  who  was  then 
in  the  United  States.  He  wrote  in  Sparks's  behalf 
to  Lockhart,  editor  of  The  Quarterly  Review,  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  and  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  then 
the  home  secretary.  Letters  to  Lord  Holland  were 
also  secured,  and  they  proved  most  helpful.  Sparks 
landed  at  Liverpool,  April  16,  1828. 

His  diary  is  full  of  the  mention  of  social  functions 


JARED    SPARKS  95 

at  which  he  took  a  pleasant  part.  He  breakfasted  with 
Brougham  at  Westminster  Hall,  had  an  appointment 
with  Huskisson  at  the  colonial  office,  and  dined  with 
Lord  Holland  and  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  where 
there  were  other  lords  and  along  with  them  Sydney 
Smith,  with  whom  Sparks  became  well  acquainted. 
At  Brougham's  he  "found  Mr.  Mill  there,  the  author 
of  a  work  on  political  economy,  and  another  on  India," 
and  he  was  "surprised  to  find  both  these  gentlemen 
extremely  ill-informed  "  in  regard  to  the  United  States. 
He  was  introduced  to  Wordsworth,  who  invited  him 
to  breakfast,  and  who  called  later  with  Mrs.  Words 
worth.  Southey  he  also  met  and  saw  many  times. 
All  this  fine  society  pleased  Sparks  immensely,  and 
he  went  out  as  much  as  he  could.  But  he  did  not  lose 
sight  of  the  object  of  his  visit.  Pleading  with  officials, 
reading  where  he  had  gained  access,  and  giving  orders 
to  his  copyists  were  always  his  chief  occupations. 

In  his  first  interview  with  Lord  Lansdowne,  head 
of  the  home  office,  he  was  told  that  no  impediment 
would  exist  to  his  researches.  Other  officials  pro 
fessed  themselves  most  willing  to  promote  his  desires. 
But  days  and  weeks  passed  in  fruitless  endeavors. 
One  official  sent  him  to  another.  Sir  James  Mackin 
tosh,  Lord  Holland,  Sydney  Smith,  and  Southey  all 
exhausted  their  skill  to  no  avail.  It  was  the  very  time 
when  the  British  parties  were  in  their  most  constant 
state  of  ferment,  due  to  the  persistent  demand  for 
popular  reforms.  In  May  the  ministry  was  reorganized 


96  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

on  a  purely  tory  basis,  and  after  a  short  while  there 
followed  a  period  of  harmony.  At  that  moment  the 
coveted  permission  was  obtained.  It  was  just  before 
the  reorganization  that  Sparks  presented  his  request, 
and  the  men  then  in  power  were  so  much  engaged 
in  their  party  difficulties  that  they  did  not  give  seri 
ous  attention  to  Sparks.  He  said  later  that  he  did  not 
think  they  were  disposed  to  deny  his  request,  but 
that  since  it  was  unusual  they  naturally  showed  some 
hesitation  in  deciding  upon  the  best  way  of  granting  it. 
As  soon  as  permission  had  been  gained  in  London 
Sparks  set  out  for  the  continent,  deferring  the  further 
examination  of  British  papers  until  his  return.  After 
making  a  short  detour  into  Germany  he  came  to  Paris, 
where  he  was  accorded  a  warm  welcome  by  Lafayette 
and  the  Marquis  de  Marbois,  the  latter  a  former  minis 
ter  of  the  French  government  to  the  United  States. 
They  both  possessed  influence  with  the  government 
and  were  able  to  secure  speedy  admission  to  the  public 
archives.  There  is  an  interesting  contrast  between 
the  way  in  which  the  French  and  British  archives 
had  to  be  attacked.  In  London  each  department 
had  authority  over  the  papers  that  had  once  been 
within  its  hands,  even  when  they  were  in  central 
deposits.  It  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  have  per 
mission  from  various  sources,  and  in  some  cases  the 
officials  themselves  expressed  doubt  as  to  their  ability 
to  give  the  required  permission.  In  France  all  was 
certain.  There  was  a  keeper  of  archives  with  authority 


JARED    SPARKS  97 

over  his  office.  He  took  the  request  of  Sparks  under 
consideration,  referred  it  to  his  superior,  the  minister 
of  foreign  affairs,  and  the  latter  gave  permission. 
There  was  every  reason  that  the  French  should  be 
willing  that  their  part  in  the  American  Revolution 
should  be  known  to  an  American  historian. 

Shortly  after  Sparks  and  his  copyists  had  established 
themselves  in  Paris  at  their  work  in  the  archives,  the 
minister  of  foreign  affairs  went  on  a  vacation,  leaving 
his  office  in  the  hands  of  a  substitute.  To  this  man 
came  information  that  a  stranger  was  installed  in  the 
public  archives,  taking  copies  of  official  papers,  a 
favor  not  before  allowed,  even  to  a  French  citizen. 
He  called  upon  the  keeper  of  the  papers,  there  was 
a  period  of  hesitation,  and  the  upshot  was  that  the 
American  was  told  that  he  could  not  make  copies 
entire,  but  only  extracts,  and  that  he  could  not  have 
a  copyist.  The  decision  involved  a  large  amount 
of  labor,  but  Sparks  did  not  shirk  it.  For  over  three 
months  he  went  daily  to  the  archives,  copying  with 
his  own  hand,  and  missing  none  of  the  six  hours  a  day 
in  which  the  rooms  were  open.  At  last  he  submitted 
his  notes  to  the  keeper  of  the  archives,  who  cut  out  a 
few  passages  perfunctorily,  as  if  some  excision  was 
expected  of  him.  Other  collections,  smaller  than  this, 
were  examined,  and  January  3,  1829,  he  was  back  in 
London  for  the  completion  of  his  labors  in  that  city. 

The  British  officials  also  allowed  only  extracts  to 
be  taken,  but  he  might  mark  what  he  wanted,  and 


98  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

clerks  in  the  public  service  made  the  copies.  When 
all  was  done  the  copies  were  inspected  by  the  proper 
authorities.  His  most  important  work  was  in  the 
foreign  office,  and  Lord  Aberdeen,  head  of  the  office, 
handed  the  notes  to  Sparks  with  a  pleasant  speech, 
thus  described  in  the  journal  of  our  traveler : 

"He  said  the  facts  of  history  were  public  property,  and  that 
the  history  in  which  I  was  engaged  was  one  of  great  interest,  not 
only  to  America,  but  to  England  and  to  Europe.  He  hoped  to  see 
all  means  used  to  keep  up  a  kind  feeling  between  England  and  the 
United  States,  and  he  believed  that  a  well-digested  and  impartial 
history  of  past  events  could  have  no  other  effect  at  the  present  day, 
when  time  enough  had  elapsed  to  calm  the  excitements  and  angry 
feelings  that  prevailed  during  the  transactions  themselves." l 

It  is  creditable  to  Sparks  that  he  was  never  justly 
criticized  for  misuse  of  the  liberty  given  him  in  the 
British  office.  He  found  much  new  material,  and 
some  of  it  presented  facts  on  the  American  side  of 
the  old  controversy  that  might  have  been  made  to  do 
service  in  opening  old  wounds.  He  did  not  use  it  in 
that  way.  Sir  George  Murray,  one  of  the  English 
men  who  gave  him  much  assistance,  observed  to  him 
that  there  was  a  wide  difference  between  the  British 
and  French  documents :  the  latter,  said  he,  were  the 
papers  of  a  power  friendly  to  America  in  the  time  at 
which  they  were  written,  while  the  former  were  the 
papers  of  a  nation  then  hostile;  and  he  trusted  that 
nothing  would  be  done  or  said  that  would  tend  to 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  127. 


JARED    SPARKS  99 

revive  angry  feelings  between  the  powers.1  Nothing 
could  show  better  the  dissolving  power  of  history  on 
national  prejudices  than  the  perfect  agreement  between 
these  two  men,  Yankee  and  Briton,  as  they  stood  by 
the  grave  of  Britain's  former  colonial  authority  and 
pledged  each  other  that  misunderstandings  should 
not  be  revived. 

While  in  London  Sparks  had  access  to  several  rich 
private  collections,  one  of  them  being  the  papers  of 
the  Earl  of  Shelburne,  placed  at  his  disposal  by  the 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne.  Another  valuable  collec 
tion  he  did  not  see.  It  was  the  papers  of  Edmund 
Burke,  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  who  was 
quite  old.  After  having  his  hope  of  seeing  them  excited, 
Sparks  learned  that  the  papers  were  in  Yorkshire, 
in  some  confusion,  and  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
examine  them.  To  his  diary  he  confided  his  disap 
pointment,  consoling  himself  with  the  observation : 
"I  have  never  had  any  hopes  of  those  papers  since  I 
found  they  were  in  the  hands  of  a  lord,  even  a  liberal 
and  good-natured  one,  and  that  his  personal  labor 
was  necessary  to  select  them."  2 

Sparks  returned  from  Europe  with  even  greater  eclat 
than  from  Mount  Vernon  two  years  earlier.  The 
newspapers  of  Boston  and  New  York  took  notice  of 
his  success,  friends  and  strangers  sent  their  congratu 
lations,  and  his  transcripts  were  looked  upon  as  an 
addition  to  the  national  wealth.  No  book  was  ever 

1  IW.t  123,  n.  2  Ibid.,  82. 


100  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

better  advertised  than  Sparks's  "Washington,"  could 
it  have  appeared  immediately  after  his  arrival  in 
America.  Bancroft  wrote:  "Let  me  join  my  con 
gratulations  with  those  of  your  friends  who  see  you 
visibly  on  the  great  success  which  report  attributes 
to  your  expedition.  It  falls  to  the  lot  of  few  men  to 
identify  themselves  with  a  leading  object  of  public 
curiosity  and  interest."  1 

6.    Sparks  in  the  Hands  of  his  Critics 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  record  that  our  first  really 
efficient  collector  and  editor  of  documents  had  carried 
his  work  through  in  such  a  way  that  no  shadow  rested 
upon  it.  Unfortunately,  we  can  make  no  such  a  claim. 
Sparks,  who  did  so  much  that  was  truly  modern,  did 
not  shake  off  one  fatal  defect  of  the  old  methods.  He 
thought  that  a  sacred  halo  surrounded  the  life  of  a 
great  man,  which  profane  hands  should  not  break 
lest  ordinary  men  should  lose  their  proper  reverence 
for  authority  and  for  the  noble  ideals  which  were 
embraced  in  the  higher  specimens  of  the  race.  Hold 
ing  this  view,  and  many  men  besides  Sparks  held  it 
in  1830,  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  paint  Wash 
ington  with  small  faults.  He  altered  Washington's  lan 
guage  and  became  liable  to  a  charge  of  perverting  the 
truth.  But  for  this  failing  Sparks  could  be  called  the 
father  of  the  modern  school  of  American  history. 

In  1847  W.  B.  Reed,  of  Philadelphia,  published  the 

1  Bancroft  to  Sparks,  June  4,  1829.     Sparks  MSS. 


JARED    SPARKS  101 

"Life  and  Correspondence  of  Joseph  Reed,"  his 
grandfather,  including  in  the  book  some  letters  from 
Washington,  which  had  also  appeared  in  Sparks's 
"Washington."  Four  years  later  a  writer  in  the  New 
York  Evening  Post,  signing  himself  "Friar  Lubin," 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  Sparks's  text  of  the 
letters  did  not  correspond  with  Reed's.  He  spoke 
with  acerbity,  saying  that  the  letters  had  been  changed 
by  the  editor  "from  an  imperfect  appreciation  of  his 
editorial  functions."  In  the  same  year  was  published 
the  sixth  volume  of  Lord  Mahon's  "History  of  Eng 
land,"  in  the  appendix  of  which  the  author  discussed 
Sparks's  "Life  of  Washington."  Mahon  gave  due 
credit  for  the  learning  and  industry  displayed  in  its 
footnotes,  and  to  the  good  judgment  with  which  the 
letters  had  been  selected,  but  he  also,  and  writing  with 
out  knowledge  of  "Friar  Lubin's"  attack,  pointed 
out  the  divergence  between  Sparks's  and  Reed's 
texts  of  the  Washington  letters,  drawing  conclusions 
nearly  as  uncomplimentary  as  those  expressed  in  the 
Evening  Post.  "I  am  bound,  however,  not  to  conceal 
the  opinion  I  have  formed,"  said  he,  "that  Mr.  Sparks 
has  printed  no  part  of  the  correspondence  precisely 
as  Washington  wrote  it ;  but  has  greatly  altered,  and, 
as  he  thinks,  corrected  and  embellished  it."  1 

1  In  1827  Sparks,  calling  attention  to  his  project,  issued  a  prospectus  in 
which  he  published  as  samples  some  letters  of  Washington  to  Joseph  Reed. 
William  B.  Reed  wrote  him  saying  that  he  noticed  that  these  copies  differed 
in  the  wording  from  the  originals  in  his  possession.  Sparks  ignored  this 
warning.  See  Reed  to  Sparks,  Oct.  17,  1827.  Sparks  MSS. 


102  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

To  these  strictures  Sparks  wrote  a  reply.  He  did 
not  deny  that  he  had  made  changes  in  Washington's 
letters.  It  was  the  duty  of  an  editor,  he  said,  to  cor 
rect  slips  of  the  pen,  inaccuracies  of  expression,  and 
errors  in  grammar;  but  he  claimed  that  he  had  gone 
no  further  than  this.  He  asserted  that  his  corrections 
had  in  no  case  altered  the  meaning  of  a  single  state 
ment  of  fact.  In  disclaiming  an  intention  of  pervert 
ing  Washington's  words  he  said : 

"I  do  not  pretend  to  infallibility  of  judgment ;  probably  no  two 
persons  would  decide  alike  in  all  cases  of  this  kind,  some  of  which 
involve  minute  distinctions  of  no  great  moment  in  themselves ;  nor 
am  I  sure  that  I  should  now  in  every  instance  approve  my  first 
decisions ;  but  I  feel  that  I  have  a  right  to  claim  the  credit  of  integ 
rity  of  purpose,  and  of  having  faithfully  discharged  the  duty  set 
before  me,  in  strict  conformity  with  the  principles  explained  at 
large  to  the  public  in  the  introduction  to  the  first  volume  that  was 
published."  l 

Some  of  Mahon's  evidence,  and  that  which  was 
most  damaging  to  Sparks,  included  the  appearance 
of  a  two-line  sentence  in  Sparks's  copy,  which  did  not 
appear  in  the  Reed  copy.  Much  was  made  of  it, 
especially  since  it  was  couched  in  florid  language, 
which  lent  itself  to  ridicule.  A  closer  examination  of 
the  originals  showed  that  Reed  himself  had  made  a 
mistake  in  copying  and  that  the  two  lines  really  ap- 

1  Sparks's  reply  first  appeared  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post  in  April, 
1852,  and  was  republished  in  Boston  in  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "A  Reply  to 
the  strictures  of  Lord  Mahon  and  Others  on  the  Mode  of  pditing  the 
Writings  of  Washington." 


JARED    SPARKS  103 

peared  in  the  original  letter.  As  this  point  was 
Mahon's  chief  reliance  for  the  charge  that  additions 
had  been  made  to  the  text,  he  was  left  in  an  embarrass 
ing  position.  He  did  the  only  thing  possible,  with 
drew  that  particular  charge  in  good  temper,  saying 
he  had  been  misled  through  trusting  Reed's  text 
implicitly.  But  he  did  not  withdraw  the  other  charges, 
that  is,  the  omission  of  some  words  and  the  alteration 
of  others. 

Here  are  some  of  the  corrections  made  by  Sparks 
—  Mahon  called  them  "embellishments,"  a  term 
which  it  is  hard  to  condemn.  Washington  wrote 
"Old  Put.,"  following  a  custom  universally  popular 
at  the  time:  Sparks  changed  it  to  "General  Putnam." 
Washington  spoke  of  a  small  sum  of  money  as  "but  a 
flea-bite  at  present":  Sparks  made  it  read  "totally 
inadequate  to  our  demands  at  this  time."  Where 
Washington  used  vehement  language  to  characterize 
the  conduct  of  the  British,  Sparks,  probably  recalling 
his  conversation  with  Lord  Aberdeen  and  Sir  George 
Murray,  omitted  the  strong  words  altogether.  Thus 
vanishes  the  passage  in  which  Dunmore  is  called  "that 
arch  traitor  to  the  rights  of  humanity,"  and  another 
in  which  the  Scotch  are  "those  universal  instru 
ments  of  tyranny."  Mahon  thinks  that  these  omis 
sions  were  made  in  order  that  Washington  might 
not  seem  to  speak  harshly  about  the  British.  Of 
course,  this  construction  may  be  put  upon  them,  but 
it  is  as  fair  to  assume  that  the  passages  were  omitted 


104  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

in  order  that  recalling  them  might  not  needlessly 
excite  old  passions.  Giving  Sparks  the  benefit  of 
this  doubt,  however,  does  not  rehabilitate  him  as  an 
editor;  for  there  are  very  many  corrections  in  which 
it  is  undeniable  that  the  sole  object  was  to  improve 
the  language  of  a  man  who  did  not  write  polished 
phrases. 

Speaking  in  defense  of  his  labors,  Sparks  said  in  his 
reply  to  his  critics  that  Washington  himself,  in  his 
old  age,  revised  his  letters  while  having  them  copied 
in  letter-books,  and  since  he,  Sparks,  used  the  letter- 
books  it  was  not  strange  that  the  letters  should  be 
printed  in  a  form  unlike  that  in  which  they  were  sent. 
This  excuse  has  been  made  to  do  good  service  by  his 
defenders ;  but  it  was  effectively  disposed  of  by  Mahon, 
who  pointed  out  that  the  letters  to  Reed  were  not 
copied  into  Washington's  letter-books,  since  he  had 
not  retained  copies  of  them ;  and  that  the  very  copies 
that  Sparks  used  were  obtained  by  him  from  W.  B. 
Reed,  and  if  faithfully  reproduced  would  have  been 
identical  with  the  text  in  Reed's  book. 

The  earlier  volumes  of  Sparks's  edition  contain 
many  more  changes  in  the  text  than  the  later  volumes. 
It  is  possible  that  this  was  due  to  an  improvement  in 
Washington's  letter-writing  art.  He  was  largely  self- 
taught,  and  having  been  through  the  highest  ranks  of 
military  and  political  authority,  he  would  naturally 
have  acquired  facility  in  expression.  Possibly,  also, 
Sparks  was  a  little  awed  by  the  high  station  Washing- 


JARED    SPARKS  105 

ton  held  and  did  not  discover  as  much  to  correct  in 
the  letters  of  a  commander-in-chief  as  in  those  of  a 
backwoods  colonel. 

Still  another  possibility  suggests  itself.  Sparks  was 
aided  in  his  editorial  work  by  Samuel  Atkins  Eliot, 
his  warm  admirer  and  generous  friend.  Eliot  was  a 
Harvard  graduate  of  the  class  of  1817.  He  was  a 
business  man  of  rather  daring  methods,  who  at  that 
time  was  dazzling  the  Boston  circles  by  his  successes. 
He  was  a  good  friend  of  learning  and  his  interest 
in  the  Washington  papers  is  shown  by  the  free  manner 
in  which  he  advanced  money  to  promote  their  publi 
cation.  But  he  was  not  suited  by  training  for  the 
work  of  editing  them.  Yet  to  him  Sparks  intrusted 
the  selection  of  the  letters  in  the  first  four  manuscript 
volumes.  The  following  letter,  written  while  Sparks 
was  in  Europe,  shows  in  what  light  Eliot  regarded  his 
task : 

"The  four  volumes  of  Washington's  letters  which  you  left  with 
me  to  select  from  and  copy  are  ready,  with  all  the  notes  and  illus 
trations  which  seem  necessary ;  which  are  very  few,  for  the  letters 
explain  themselves  very  much,  leaving  only  enough  to  the  imagina 
tion  of  the  reader  to  exercise  it  agreeably.  I  think  you  have 
rather  overestimated  the  amount  of  those  letters.  With  all  the 
requisite  notes  they  will  hardly  cover  two  hundred  and  fifty  pages, 
or  about  half  a  volume ;  and  the  sources  of  information  with  regard 
to  his  early  life,  before  the  commencement  of  his  letters,  are  so 
extremely  meagre  that  three  hundred  pages  will  be  enough  for 
everything  as  far  as  the  years  1758-59,  and  from  there  to  the 
Revolution  ten  lines  will  tell  the  whole  story,  and  as  I  think  it  very 
important  to  compress  the  work,  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  the 
purpose  of  giving  a  full  and  true  view  of  Washington's  character 


106  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

and  mind,  I  was  quite  pleased  to  find  that  such  was  the  state  of 
the  case.  They  are  admirable  letters,  and  considering  his  time  of 
life,  the  character  he  had  already  established  was  wonderful."  1 

Eliot  continued  to  give  assistance  after  Sparks's 
return  from  Europe,  and  his  letters  show  that  he  was 
"even  more  zealous  than  Sparks  for  the  reputation  of 
Washington." 2  Knowing  these  facts,  the  question 
arises :  Was  it  Eliot  or  Sparks  who  made  the  large 
number  of  excisions  in  these  early  letters?  There  is 
no  way  of  answering  the  question,  since  the  corre 
spondence  that  is  preserved  gives  no  clew  that  is  reli 
able.  But  the  fact  that  two  men  were  concerned  with 
it,  at  least  raises  a  puzzling  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the 
critic ;  although  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  as  Sparks 
intrusted  the  task  to  Eliot  he  was  responsible  for  any 
deficiency  that  may  have  ensued. 

The  Sparks-Mahon  controversy  attracted  attention 
widely  in  the  United  States  and  in  England.  It  divided 
the  historians  into  a  Sparks  and  an  anti-Sparks  group, 
and  it  left  a  cloud  on  the  reputation  of  the  editor  of 
the  works  of  Washington  that  has  not  yet  been  re 
moved.  One  of  his  best  defenders  was  John  Gorham 
Palfrey,  a  classmate  at  Harvard  and  a  lifelong  friend. 
He  wrote  for  the  North  American  Review  a  long  criti 
cism  of  Mahon's  history.3  We  may  imagine  with 
what  glee  he  discovered  that  the  noble  author  had 

1  Eliot,  S.  A.  to  Sparks,  Nov.  25,  1828.     Sparks  MSS :  quoted  in  Adams, 
"  Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  267. 

2  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  268. 

3  Volume  LXXV. 


JARED    SPARKS  107 

written  with  very  imperfect  knowledge  of  affairs  in 
the  American  colonies.  Taking  advantage  of  his 
opportunity  Palfrey  proceeded  to  riddle  the  narrative, 
pronouncing  it  inadequate  and  badly  balanced.  He 
charged  Mahon  with  minimizing  the  part  played  by 
the  colonials  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  with  failure  to 
do  justice  to  Washington,  with  ignoring  the  part  New 
England  played  in  resisting  the  Stamp  Act,  and  with 
doing  many  other  things  equally  bad  from  an  American 
point  of  view. 

Having  thus  laid  the  foundation  by  putting  Mahon 
in  the  wrong  on  matters  of  history,  Palfrey  took  up 
Sparks's  defense.  He  skillfully  crushed  the  criticism 
that  additions  had  been  made,  and  came  blandly  to 
the  assertion  that  omissions  and  corrections  were  also 
made.  As  to  omissions,  of  course  there  were  omis 
sions  !  Washington's  letters  were  numerous  enough 
to  fill  forty  volumes.  No  publisher  would  undertake 
an  edition  of  that  size.  As  to  the  corrections,  Palfrey 
said  much  about  the  correction  of  spelling  and  trivial 
errors  of  grammar.  The  corrections  which  Mahon 
called  "embellishments"  were  justified  in  a  cloud  of 
general  phrases,  skillfully  constructed  to  minimize 
the  importance  of  any  changes  whatever.  Palfrey's 
defense  at  this  point  was  constructed  in  the  manner 
of  an  advocate. 

The  real  question  in  connection  with  Sparks 's  editing 
is  this :  Should  letters  and  other  papers  be  published 
with  absolute  exactness,  or  should  the  editor  be  allowed 


108  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

the  liberty  of  changing  the  text  in  such  a  manner  as 
seems  to  him  fair  to  the  writer.  In  our  own  day  no 
reputable  editor  would  oppose  exact  reproduction, 
but  in  Sparks's  day  it  was  otherwise.  Some  men,  it  is 
true,  like  Ebenezer  Hazard  and  Jeremy  Belknap,  were 
for  exact  reproduction,  but  the  majority  were  for  dress 
ing  up  the  letters  so  that  they  should  not  appear 
indecent.  Palfrey,  in  the  article  just  cited,  thus 
states  the  function  of  the  editor: 

The  great  public  has  a  prurient  curiosity  to  see  a  great  man  in 
dishabille.  If,  being  a  good  thinker,  he  has  sometimes  used  bad 
reasonings, —  if,  being  or  not  being  a  good  scholar,  he  has  made 
some  lapses  in  spelling,  grammar,  rhetoric,  or  recollection  of  facts, 
there  is  a  sort  of  satisfaction  to  readers  in  having  them  exposed, 
and  in  having  opportunity  afforded  to  exercise  their  own  critical 
gifts,  and  to  feel,  so  far,  their  own  superiority.  If  hasty  opinions, 
alien  from  the  usual  habits  of  thought,  have  somehow  been  put  on 
record ;  if  some  petulant  expression  has  been  used,  out  of  harmony 
with  the  characteristic  style  of  comment  and  intercourse ;  if  some 
thing  which  the  man  kept  to  himself,  during  his  life,  can  be  got  at, 
now  that  he  is  no  longer  here  to  protect  it,  there  is  many  a  reader 
who  especially  rejoices  in  such  spoil. 

"How  far  is  that  taste  to  be  accommodated,  by  one  who  has  an 
editor's  responsibility  for  a  great  renown  ?  If  a  man  may  reason 
ably  dislike  the  thought  of  having  his  dead  body  exposed  to  a  mob 
of  students  on  a  dissecting  table,  has  he  no  privileges  whatever  of 
exemption  from  a  vulgar  exposure  of  his  mind  ?  " 

These  considerations  had  great  weight  in  Sparks's 
day.  It  was  generally  accepted  that  the  mind  of  the 
great  should  be  exposed  decently  if  exposed  at  all. 
We  have  in  this  connection  the  following  statement 
from  Colonel  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson: 


JARED    SPARKS  109 

"It  is  only  very  lately  that  there  has  come  to  be  any  strict  sense 
of  the  value  of  a  quotation  mark.  Bancroft,  Hildreth,  Frothing- 
ham  (R.)  all  revised  their  quotations  without  saying  so ;  Professor 
E.  T.  Channing  in  his  life  of  William  Ellery  did  the  same  thing; 
and  his  nephew,  my  cousin,  William  Henry  Channing,  did  the 
same  thing  constantly  in  the  Memoirs  of  Margaret  Fuller,  of  which 
I  have  the  MS.  letters  and  diaries  he  used.  It  has  only  been  out 
grown  since  the  habit  came  up  of  printing  verbatim  et  literatim'' l 

Let  us  give  Sparks  all  that  is  here  claimed  for  him. 
Let  us  grant  that  he  never  consciously  changed  the 
sense  of  a  letter  and  that  if  in  his  edition  we  do  not 
get  the  exact  sense  of  the  writer,  it  is  because  he  erred 
in  judgment.  It  remains  to  be  said  that  in  Sparks's 
day,  in  spite  of  Colonel  Higginson's  assertion,  the 
belief  that  historical  materials  should  be  printed  with 
out  alterations  had  already  secured  recognition  in 
the  world.  The  best  editors  in  Europe  had  adopted 
that  method,  and  in  the  United  States,  Peter  Force 
was  employing  it  in  his  researches.  The  necessity 
for  exactness  in  reproducing  letters  destined  to  become 
historical  materials  is  as  old  as  the  impulse  to  discover 
historical  truth.  Employing  Palfrey's  figure,  the  mind 
of  an  historical  personage,  preserved  in  his  letters, 
should  be  presented  to  the  student  of  history  in  its 
nakedness,  and  it  is  for  the  student  to  treat  it  with 
respect.  If  he  fails,  the  shame  is  the  student's,  not 
the  editor's. 

Perhaps  Sparks  did  not  think  about  the  student 
of  history.  There  is  much  to  show  that  he  expected 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  272,  n.  1. 


110  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

his  work  to  be  read  by  the  people.  He  thought  that 
he  was  appealing  to  a  popular  audience ;  and  for  such 
readers  it  was  in  keeping  with  his  design  to  "embel 
lish"  and  correct,  lest  the  people  should  lower  their 
respect  for  great  men. 

One  other  charge  against  Sparks,  the  editor,  must 
be  taken  up  separately.  Its  import  was  that  he 
omitted  from  Washington's  letters  expressions  unfavor 
able  to  New  England  men.  In  a  letter  from  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  August  29, 
1775,  occurs  the  following  passage : 

"As  we  have  now  nearly  compleated  our  Lines  of  Defence,  we 
have  nothing  more,  in  my  opinion  to  fear  from  the  Enemy,  pro 
vided  we  can  keep  our  men  to  their  duty  and  make  them  watchful 
and  vigilant ;  but  it  is  among  the  most  difficult  tasks  I  ever  under 
took  in  my  life  to  induce  these  people  to  believe  that  there  is,  or 
can  be,  danger  till  the  Bayonet  is  pushed  at  their  Breasts;  not 
that  it  proceeds  from  any  uncommon  prowess,  but  rather  from  an 
unaccountable  kind  of  stupidity  in  the  lower  class  of  these  people 
which,  believe  me,  prevails  but  too  generally  among  the  officers 
of  the  Massachusetts  part  of  the  Army  who  are  nearly  of  the  same 
kidney  with  the  privates,  and  adds  not  a  little  to  my  difficulties; 
as  there  is  no  such  thing  as  getting  of  officers  of  this  stamp  to  exert 
themselves  in  carrying  orders  into  execution  —  to  curry  favor  with 
the  men  (by  whom  they  were  chosen  &  on  whose  smiles  possibly 
they  may  think  they  may  again  rely)  seems  to  be  one  of  the  prin 
cipal  objects  of  their  attention." 1 

This  passage  was  omitted  from  Sparks's  edition. 
Badly  expressed  as  it  was,  a  zealous  editor  might  have 
cut  it  out  through  tenderness  for  Washington's  reputa 
tion  as  a  writer,  but  such  a  reason  is  hardly  probable. 

1  Ford,  Editor,  "Writings  of  Washington,"  III,  96. 


JARED    SPARKS  111 

Since  it  gives  an  important  view  of  the  situation  in 
the  new  army  before  Boston,  there  was  every  reason 
that  it  should  have  been  left  in  the  letter. 

Another  book  in  the  editing  of  which  the  critics 
have  found  many  errors  was  the  "Diplomatic  Corre 
spondence  of  the  Revolution."  This  was  a  subsidized 
publication,  issued  under  a  contract  by  which  the 
federal  government  purchased  one  thousand  copies 
of  each  of  the  twelve  octavo  volumes,  paying  $2.12i 
a  volume.  It  was  a  work  of  reference  for  historical 
students  and  was  not  written  to  show  what  Eliot 
called  "a  full  and  true  view  of  Washington's  character 
and  mind."  In  such  a  series  of  documents  nothing 
but  an  exact  reproduction  of  the  text  should  have 
been  considered  for  a  moment.  Yet  here,  also,  Sparks 
took  many  liberties  with  the  text. 

His  errors  were  so  striking  that  in  1888  a  congres 
sional  committee  on  printing  took  up  the  question  of 
providing  a  new  edition.  Its  report  showed  that  he 
had  omitted  letters  bearing  on  the  attempts  in  1776- 
77  of  French  and  American  politicians  to  secure  the 
removal  of  Washington  as  commander-in-chief  and 
the  substitution  of  Marshal  Broglie  in  his  place,  as 
well  as  letters  in  which  was  evidence  bearing  on  the 
atrocities  of  the  British  troops  and  the  tories  in  the 
United  States  during  the  revolution.  Many  of  his 
excisions  were  in  letters  that  referred  to  the  fisher 
ies,  a  subject  that  engaged  the  attention  of  later  diplo 
mats  most  frequently.  One  of  the  omissions  pointed 


AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

out  by  the  committee  was  made  in  a  letter  from  Silas 
Deane,  December  6,  1776,  sent  when  De  Kalb  came 
to  America.  It  contained  the  suggestion  that  Broglie 
be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  army,  but  this  part  was 
cut  out  by  Sparks,  and  the  letter  when  published  was 
only  a  letter  of  introduction.  There  were  also,  said 
the  committee,  many  small  changes  in  the  words, 
made  to  "embellish"  the  language.  The  report  of 
the  committee  led  congress  to  order  a  new  edition  to 
be  brought  out  under  the  editorship  of  Francis  Whar- 
ton,  solicitor  of  the  state  department.  It  appeared 
in  1889,  immediately  after  the  death  of  the  editor. 
The  proofs  were  read  by  John  Bassett  Moore. 

Sparks's  Diplomatic  Correspondence  was  criticized 
soon  after  it  was  published,  and  the  criticism  brought 
forth  a  reply  which  may  be  cited  as  his  own  view  of  his 
task.  "I  was  employed,"  he  said,  "to  publish  a 
selection  from  the  Diplomatic  Papers  in  the  Department 
of  State.  I  acted  under  specific  instruction  for  that 
object.  ...  In  making  the  selection,  it  is  true, 
my  judgment  was  to  be  the  guide,  aided  by  such  partic 
ular  and  general  instructions  as  were  given  to  me. 
The  nature  of  the  undertaking  rendered  this  necessary. 
I  explained  my  method  in  the  fullest  and  clearest 
manner  in  the  preface  to  the  first  volume.  This  was 
never  disapproved  by  my  employers;  nor  was  it  ever 
hinted  to  me  that  I  had  misunderstood  my  instruc 
tions,  or  in  any  degree  deviated  from  them."  1  This 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  157,  n.  1. 


JARED    SPARKS  113 

defense  does  not  exculpate.  An  editor  is  judged  by 
the  standards  he  himself  sets  up,  not  those  of  a  public 
official.  Moreover,  in  all  Sparks 's  extensive  corre 
spondence  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  had  specific 
directions  on  this  point.  It  is  fair  to  assume  that 
his  instructions  left  him  liberty  to  do  all  he  was  criti 
cized  for  not  doing. 

It  would  be  unfair  to  Sparks  the  editor  to  dismiss 
him  without  emphasizing  the  fact  that  he  did  a  great 
service  to  historical  research,  in  spite  of  his  faults. 
While  we  have  had  to  re-edit  what  he  edited,  we  have 
not  lost  the  influence  of  his  pioneer  work.  He,  more 
than  anyone  else  of  his  day,  aroused  the  public  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  publication  of  documents.  Peter 
Force,  who  had  better  editorial  habits,  had  not  as 
great  an  influence  on  his  age.  Moreover,  it  seems  a 
fair  assumption  that  he  was  set  to  work  by  Sparks's 
example.  Sparks  was  so  nearly  an  excellent  editor, 
that  we  are  justified  in  giving  him  the  benefit  of  that 
charity  to  which  every  pioneer  is  entitled.  He  lived 
up  to  a  standard  which  the  world  was  in  the  act  of 
laying  aside,  and  it  was  his  misfortune  that  he  re 
tained  the  old.  Those  who  have  come  after  him,  and 
are  warned  by  the  example  of  his  failure,  deserve  little 
credit  for  avoiding  his  mistakes.  Few  of  them  are 
his  equal  in  breadth  of  knowledge,  industry,  and  the 
willingness  to  undertake  and  carry  through  great 
enterprises,  qualities  which  are  essential  in  a  great 
historian. 


114  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

7.   Sparks's  Methods  of  Working 

To  understand  Jared  Sparks  we  must  not  think 
of  him  as  a  bookworm.  Like  most  of  the  New  England 
school  to  which  he  belonged,  Emerson,  Edward  Everett, 
Bancroft,  and  Palfrey,  he  began  life  as  a  minister. 
As  such  he  was  interested  in  the  varied  affairs  of  life 
around  him.  He  was  a  member  of  a  serious  and  gentle 
group  of  men  and  women  who  loved  to  read  good  books 
and  to  talk  with  intellectual  people.  He  accepted 
the  ideals  of  the  community  in  which  he  lived.  In 
his  age  a  radical  was  not  popular  in  New  England. 

From  Professor  Andrews  Norton,  of  Harvard,  a 
member  of  the  group  of  ministers  with  whom  Sparks's 
early  life  was  thrown,  we  have  an  interesting  estimate 
of  the  literary  function  of  a  minister.  He  wrote  from 
New  York,  January  6,  1820  : 

"  The  literature  in  any  place  depends  much  upon  the  character 
of  its  clergymen,  and  upon  the  specimens  of  correct  thought  and 
sentiment  and  expression,  which  they  afford  in  then*  weekly  dis 
courses;  and  upon  the  enlargement  of  mind  produced  by  just 
views  of  religion.  As  for  the  present  clergy  of  this  place,  I  have 
been  led  to  form  not  a  very  favorable  opinion  of  the  character  of 
the  majority  of  their  number  considered  in  any  respect.  The 
standard  of  preaching  appears  to  be  very  low ;  and  the  standard 
of  moral  honesty,  to  judge  from  some  anecdotes  which  I  have 
heard,  almost  on  a  level  with  it."  1 

In  Sparks's  day  history  had  not  become  a  matter 
of  "movements,"  "forces,"  and  "problems."  The 

1  To  Sparks,  Sparks  MSS.  Professor  Norton  was  the  father  of  Charles 
Eliot  Norton. 


JARED    SPARKS  115 

monograph  was  not  yet  acclimated  in  our  country. 
Minute  research  had  not  at  that  time  taken  the  place 
of  proportion.  History  was  a  thing  of  human  activities 
to  be  dressed  in  flowing  robes  and  with  due  attention 
to  the  harmonies.  A  historian  took  for  his  subject  a 
general  field  or  some  series  of  events  with  the  idea  of 
making  a  narrative  rather  than  an  interpretation  of 
causes  and  effects.  Sparks  did  not  reject  the  old  way, 
although  he  was  not  the  man  to  carry  it  to  the  best 
success.  In  fact,  he  was  in  a  sense  one  of  the  first 
of  a  new  school. 

This  is  especially  shown  in  his  "Life  of  Washington." 
Here  is  a  book  written  in  immediate  juxtaposition 
with  the  documents.  Designed  for  volume  one  of  the 
"Washington"  it  was  the  last  published,  being  kept 
back  in  order  that  the  author  might  have  the  benefit 
of  his  study  of  the  letters  before  he  wrote  the  book. 
It  is  sound,  concise,  and  dull.  It  ushered  in  a  new 
school.  Sparks  was  not  a  vivacious  writer,  like  Ban 
croft.  It  was  not  in  him  to  write  a  sprightly  book, 
perhaps.  But  in  some  of  the  biographies  he  wrote 
clear  and  easy  narrative.  In  the  "Life  of  Benedict 
Arnold"  he  is  particularly  interesting.  He  was  in 
that  book  dealing  with  a  closely  connected  and  rather 
dramatic  story,  the  very  vividness  of  which  carried 
him  on.  In  the  "Life  of  Washington"  he  was  swamped 
by  facts.  They  crowded  into  his  mind  and  mastered 
it,  a  great  army  of  facts  ranged  in  even  ranks.  He 
knew  his  facts,  but  he  did  not  master  them. 


116  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Sparks  trusted  himself  entirely  to  history.  It 
would  have  been  easy  to  continue  his  connection  with 
the  North  American  Review ,  retaining  a  part  of  the 
salary  that  had  been  paid,  and  giving  most  of  his 
time  to  the  historical  research  that  he  loved.  But  he 
threw  himself  without  reserve  into  the  new  field  that 
called  to  him.  It  is  true  that  he  was  very  well  estab 
lished  in  life.  His  profits  on  the  Review  were  $9,100, 
besides  such  savings  as  he  had  made  out  of  his  salary, 
and  he  was  a  bachelor.  At  that  time  an  unmarried 
man  whose  income  was  two  thousand  dollars  a  year 
need  not  feel  embarrassed  in  the  most  select  circle  of 
Boston.  The  following  extract  from  his  diary,  July 
15,  1826,  has  interest  in  this  connection:  "Removed 
to  my  new  quarters  in  the  house  occupied  by  Dr. 
Walter  Channing,  Common  Street  corner  of  School 
Street  —  I  have  taken  two  rooms  of  Dr.  Channing, 
for  which  I  am  to  give  him  $250  a  year.  My  arrange 
ment  is  to  breakfast  in  my  rooms  and  dine  abroad."  1 
Dr.  Channing  was  a  young  physician,  a  bachelor  also, 
and  shared  his  house  with  one  or  two  friends.  His 
marriage  in  1831  made  it  necessary  for  Sparks  to  find 
other  quarters. 

Literature  as  a  profession  suggests  garrets  and  crack 
ers  in  most  cases.  To  Sparks  it  meant  no  such  thing. 
He  believed  he  could  make  a  living  out  of  it,  and  he 
made  more  than  a  living.  He  had  a  good  appreciation 
of  that  which  the  public  will  read.  Many  a  young 

1  Sparks  MSS. 


JARED    SPARKS  117 

historian  to-day  becomes  discouraged  because  his 
book  does  not  sell,  without  realizing  that  he  has  written 
upon  a  subject  in  which  he  cannot  expect  a  large 
number  of  people  to  be  interested.  Sparks  gave  as 
careful  thought  to  the  selection  of  his  field  as  to  the 
work  he  did  in  it.  He  had,  also,  the  rare  opportunity 
to  select  the  best  field  open  to  a  historian  in  his  day. 
Washington  and  the  other  revolutionary  leaders  were 
ready  for  some  such  treatment  as  he  gave  them.  His 
friends  congratulated  him  that  he  was  to  pass  into 
history  in  honorable  and  intimate  connection  with 
the  Father  of  his  Country.  But  his  success  was  not 
accidental.  He  did  not  stumble  into  his  field.  In 
fact,  the  field  had  lain  fallow  inviting  exploitation 
for  many  years  before  he  turned  into  it.  Many  other 
men  had  passed  it  by  unnoticed,  as  good  fields  are 
always  being  passed  unnoticed.  It  was  a  part  of 
Sparks's  genius  as  a  historian  that  he  saw  the  oppor 
tunity  to  enter  a  self-supporting  career  and  accepted  it. 
In  proportion  to  the  labor  expended  on  it,  the 
"Diplomatic  Correspondence"  was  probably  the  most 
remunerative  of  Sparks's  undertakings.  For  the  thou 
sand  sets  of  twelve  volumes  each  which  he  sold  to  the 
government  he  received  $30,300,  in  which  was  included 
$4,800  for  editorial  services  at  $400  a  volume.  Of  the 
$25,500  paid  to  Sparks  for  the  copies  themselves  a 
large  part  was  profit.  We  have  no  estimate  on  which 
to  depend  at  this  point;  but  Clarke  and  Force's 
contract  for  the  "American  Archives"  was  based  on 


118  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Sparks's  contract  for  the  "Diplomatic  Correspond 
ence,"  and  they  estimated  that  their  own  work  would 
cost  to  manufacture  a  little  less  1  than  half  the  amount 
they  were  to  receive.  If  this  is  a  guide  for  us  in  the 
matter,  we  may  estimate  that  the  cost  of  the  "Diplo 
matic  Correspondence"  was  not  more  than  $15,000, 
and  if  that  is  true  Sparks's  profits  must  have  been  as 
great,  including  his  reward  for  editorial  work.  The 
twelve  volumes  were  issued  within  eighteen  months, 
and  for  the  day  the  enterprise  was  very  profitable. 

The  "  Washington  "  was  not  as  profitable  as  was  ex 
pected.  We  have  seen  that  in  1852  more  than  7000 
sets  had  been  sold  with  royalty  at  two  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  a  set.  Half  the  proceeds  of  the  eleven  vol 
umes  of  "Writings"  were  to  go  to  the  Washington 
heirs.  Sparks  received  all  the  royalty  on  the  "Life 
of  Washington"  and  the  book  sold  more  freely  than 
the  "Writings."  There  was,  also,  an  "Abridged 
Life,"  the  sales  of  which  rose  to  5,500  copies  by  1852. 
From  his  other  works  the  income  must  have  been 
considerable. 

Sparks  tried  to  make  literature  pay,  and  he  achieved 
success.  Although  the  panic  of  1837  swept  away 
a  large  part  of  his  fortune,  he  recovered  himself 
and  lived  in  comfort.  The  task  was  made  easy,  how 
ever,  by  the  fact  that  in  1839  he  became  a  profes 
sor  at  Harvard  and  served  in  that  capacity  and  as 
president  until  1853.  He  also  had  a  fair  income  from 

1  See  below,  pages  249-251. 


JARED    SPARKS  119 

lectures.  Unfortunately  we  have  no  means  of  know 
ing  the  amount  of  his  later  literary  income. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  in  the  life  of  Sparks  the  same 
problem  of  adjusting  his  time  to  the  social  demands  of 
a  pleasant  city  environment  that  many  another  scholar 
of  the  present  day  has  to  encounter.  Anxious  friends 
urged  him  to  relax  by  taking  walks  before  dinner  and 
by  going  into  society.  He  was  a  man  of  steady  habits, 
and  it  is  probable  that  most  of  such  advice  was  lost 
upon  him.  He  arose  early  and  worked  hard  from 
breakfast  until  dinner.  At  that  time  the  dinner 
hour  in  Boston  was  from  three  to  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  an  arrangement  that  lent  itself  to  long  hours 
of  labor,  with  social  intercourse  after  they  were  finished. 

In  his  study  was  a  high  desk  at  which  he  wrote 
standing,  a  custom  which  had  the  advantage  of  giving 
exercise  of  the  body  in  an  otherwise  sedentary  occupa 
tion.  As  a  correspondent  he  generally  expressed  him 
self  seriously ;  certainly  he  lacked  the  sparkle  that 
made  Bancroft's  letters  so  vivid.  But  in  one  at  least 
of  his  letters  he  gives  us  a  charming  view  of  his  daily 
life  at  his  tall  desk.  "My  window,"  he  said,  "over 
looks  Charlestown,  Cambridge,  and  the  whole  country 
round,  and  I  see  all  that  is  to  be  seen.  The  famous 
house  in  Chelsea,1  with  all  the  trees  in  the  town,  is 
in  full  sight,  and  this  moment  I  see  the  ferry-boat  just 

1  The  reference  was  to  the  family  home  of  his  correspondent.  The  letter 
was  written  in  1824,  which  was  before  he  moved  to  the  house  occupied  by 
Dr.  Channing.  See  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  I,  353. 


120  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

landing  at  the  wharf.  Five  or  six  days  ago  I  saw  the 
Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  fought  over  again,  while  stand 
ing  as  I  do  now  at  my  desk,  and  a  noisy  time  it  was ; 
the  wooden  monument  on  the  'awful  mount'  was 
shaken  to  its  centre,  and  the  mount  itself  trembled. 
Do  you  not  think  I  have  seen  wonders?  And  yet  I 
have  told  you  nothing  of  the  great  doings  of  election 
week,  when  we  had  three  or  four  sermons  every  day, 
and  the  ministers  walked  in  a  procession,  and  held 
counsels  and  looked  very  grave,  and  did  exactly  what 
their  forefathers  did  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago." 

Here  is  a  human  touch  of  another  kind,  taken  from 
a  letter  from  Dr.  Channing,  his  bachelor  lodging 
chum,  who  was  writing  to  welcome  Sparks  home  from 
Europe : 

"I  offer  you  a  sincere  welcome  to  your  home  and  your  friends. 
Your  old  room  is  friendly  [  ?],  and  exactly  where  and  what  it  was, 
and  altogether  at  your  services  whenever  you  will  come  to  it.  My 
establishment  entirely  remains  as  it  was.  My  brother,  Mr.  J. 
Perkins,  has  a  small  room  alone,  and  a  charming  fellow,  Mr.  Ed. 
Lowell,  is  in  the  back  room  on  the  same  floor  with  you.  There  are 
recent  additions :  the  old  and  more  important  matters  to  true 
bachelor  house-keeping  are  all  as  you  left  them,  except  the  fair 
Clara.  Mrs.  Bell,  her  sister,  a  nice  buxome  body,  has  [arrived] 
and  well  fills  her  place.  But  come  again,  I  hope  soon,  and  we  will 
talk  when  others  sleep,  smoke  when  others  are  unconscious  of 
breathing, —  and  drink  scuppernong,  or  mountain  dew  to  the  good 
}  ^alth  of  the  morning  star  as  in  the  olden  time." l 

Scuppernong  wine  is  made  in  the  South  from  the 
native  scuppernong  grape,  and  Sparks  had  evidently 

1  May  13,  1829.     Sparks  MSS. 


JARED    SPARKS 

learned  to  like  it  while  in  that  part  of  the  country. 
Hominy  was  another  Southern  dish  that  he  learned 
to  like  in  the  South.  He  had  it  sent  to  him  after  his 
return  to  Boston.  In  his  correspondence  is  a  letter 
from  the  Rev.  F.  W.  P.  Greenwood,  his  successor  in 
the  Baltimore  church,  and  from  it  the  following  extract 
is  taken,  partly  to  show  the  humanity  of  Sparks,  to 
whom  the  letter  was  written,  and  partly  to  show  the 
humanity  of  Puritan  ministers  in  the  days  before  the 
temperance  movement  had  made  headway.  Green 
wood  writes  from  Baltimore  to  his  friend  in  Boston : 

"I  have  attended  to  your  commission.  Last  week  I  went  down 
to  N.  F.  William's  store,  with  Mr.  Nathl.  W[illiams],  and  we  saw 
the  wine  and  the  whiskey  packed  up  ready  for  transportation. 
There  are  twenty  bottles  of  the  former,  that  is  to  say  four  gallons, 
&  I  believe  16  bottles  of  the  latter,  half  of  which  is  from  my  host, 
Mr.  Nat.,  who  wishes  you  to  say  which  you  think  best,  that  marked 
O,  or  that  marked  W.  The  barrel  in  which  they  are  packed  is 
directed  to  the  care  of  French  &  Weld.  My  debt  to  you  on  account 
of  the  Bossuet  is  now,  I  think,  discharged.  The  wine,  you  know, 
was  5  dollars  a  gallon." 1 

The  early  life  of  Sparks  was  clouded  by  the  pre 
vailing  opinion  in  regard  to  his  birth.  His  mother's 
husband,  whose  name  the  historian  bore,  was  a  man  of 
humble  position,  and  Mrs.  Sparks  bore  him  several 
children  after  their  marriage,  none  of  them  attaining 
positions  higher  than  that  of  their  parents.  With  them 
Jared  Sparks  could  have  little  sympathy.  He  visited 

1  January  6,  1824.  Sparks  MSS.  Nathaniel  Williams  was  one  of  the 
trustees  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Baltimore. 


122  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

them  seldom ;  but  he  supported  his  mother  in  comfort 
as  long  as  she  lived.  Hubbel  Loomis,  the  pastor  at 
Willington,  and  schoolmaster  to  all  the  Sparks  chil 
dren,  as  well  as  to  a  host  of  others,  acted  as  intermedi 
ary  in  providing  for  the  support  of  Mrs.  Sparks.  Many 
letters  are  preserved  from  Loomis  to  the  historian,  in 
which  we  have  a  picture  of  the  simple  home  in  the 
village.  It  reflects  credit  on  the  sincere  mind  of  their 
recipient  that  he  did  not  destroy  them  but  preserved 
them  in  the  great  collection,  which  his  historic  sense 
must  have  told  him  would  go  into  the  hands  of  the 
future  historian.  From  one  of  these  letters  is  taken 
the  following  account  of  the  doings  of  the  Sparks  family 
in  1825 : 

"The  family  are  in  good  health  and  have  quite  as  comfortable 
prospects  as  most  families  in  town.  Daniel,  you  probably  know,  is 
in  New  York.  Origen  has  been  at  home  since  November,  and  is 
this  summer  putting  up  a  house  in  this  [village]  for  Daniel  Glazier, 
Esqr.  Caleb  is  at  Sharon  in  Vermont,  with  Freeman  Holt,  learn 
ing  the  clothier's  trade  in  the  winter  and  farming  in  the  summer. 
Soliman  is  at  Vernon  in  this  county,  working  upon  a  farm  by  the 
six  months.  Joseph  works  with  his  Father.  They  are  all,  I 
believe,  sober,  prudent,  and  industrious,  and  promise  to  be  repu 
table  in  society." * 

Of  Mrs.  Sparks  the  kind-hearted  minister  wrote  in 
the  following  year  as  follows : 

"It  is,  however,  doubtful  whether  an  increased  expenditure  will 
contribute  materially  to  her  comfort.  She  has  at  no  time  failed  of 
receiving  all  the  money  that  she  intimated  she  wanted ;  and  almost 
constantly  I  have  had  some  money  of  yours  in  my  hand." 2 

1  April  20,  1825.     Sparks  MSS.         2  January  4,  1826.     Sparks  MSS. 


JARED    SPARKS  123 

He  added  that  her  nervous  depression  made  her  very 
melancholy,  and  that  she  was  a  great  care  to  her 
daughter,  Roxana,  whose  constancy  he  frequently 
praised.  No  letters  from  his  mother  are  preserved 
in  the  large  number  left  by  Sparks,  and  as  he  got  his 
regular  information  from  Loomis,  it  is  fair  to  assume 
that  she  did  not  send  any.  Many  of  our  greatest 
Americans  have  come  up  from  very  humble  origins, 
and  we  are  very  indulgent  to  such  men.  To  them, 
as  to  Sparks,  low  birth  but  enhances  their  triumph 
over  adversity ;  for  if  it  is  well  to  achieve  great  things 
when  ushered  into  the  world  under  favorable  auspices, 
it  is  better  to  achieve  them  when  the  start  in  life  is 
hampered  by  difficulties. 

8.   College  Professor  and  President 

Sparks  had  the  same  interest  in  education  that  a 
group  of  young  Harvard  men  of  his  day  felt,  who 
longed  to  revise  the  methods  of  instruction  in  Ameri 
can  colleges.  Ticknor,  Bancroft,  Cogswell,  Edward 
Everett,  S.  A.  Eliot,  and  many  others  of  the  younger 
men  of  learning  around  Cambridge  felt  that  the  old 
habit  of  assigning  lessons  on  which  the  students  were 
to  recite  as  the  sole  evidence  of  their  progress  was 
antiquated.  They  wished  to  secure  the  introduction 
of  methods  used  in  the  German  universities,  lectures 
by  men  full  of  their  subjects,  who  could  stimulate  the 
students  to  research  and  wide  reading.  Sparks  ap 
proved  this  movement  in  a  general  way,  but  it  did 


124  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

not  impress  him  very  strongly  until  his  visit  to  Europe 
in  1828  gave  him  full  opportunity  to  see  how  much 
American  colleges  were  behind  European  institutions. 
He  returned  with  dreams  of  improvement,  unburden 
ing  himself  to  George  Bancroft  in  the  following  words : 

"It  is  a  great  mistake,  however,  to  call  any  of  our  institutions 
by  the  name  of  universities.  They  are  neither  such,  nor  can  ever 
be,  without  a  radical  change.  They  are  mere  schools,  and  always 
must  be  schools,  while  the  present  system  of  mingling  dogged  reci 
tations  and  lectures  (so  called)  in  the  same  course  of  education 
[continues],  I  do  not  believe,  that  a  university  can  be  engrafted 
on  any  of  our  old  colleges.  Something  must  be  done  de  novo,  before 
any  success  can  be  hoped.  There  are  so  many  shackles  on  Harvard, 
growing  out  of  old  usages,  grants  of  money  for  specific  purposes, 
and  a  complicated  machinery  of  government,  that  you  and  all  the 
world  must  despair  of  building  it  up  into  a  university.  The  lower, 
or  the  school-part  of  this  seminary  is  an  inherent  ingredient  and 
must  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  keep  down  the  upper,  or 
university -part.  Neither  money,  nor  talents,  nor  both  combined, 
can  remedy  this  defect.  Now  let  us  have  a  university  without  the 
school-part;  let  us  have  an  establishment  where  we  can  teach  young 
men  something  about  the  operations  of  their  own  minds,  the  doings 
of  the  world,  and  the  business  of  We.  Europe  is  full  of  such  insti 
tutions  :  it  is  time  for  one  at  least  in  America."  * 

These  observations  were  well  taken,  so  far  as  they 
dealt  with  general  educational  conditions  in  the  United 
States  when  they  were  made.  But  it  was  a  long  time 
before  the  one  real  university  that  Sparks  longed  for 
was  established.  His  own  interest  in  the  matter 
was  soon  eclipsed  by  the  literary  and  editorial  work 
that  crowded  upon  him. 

1  Sparks  to  Bancroft,  June  10,  1829.     Bancroft  MSS. 


JARED    SPARKS  125 

Sparks's  interest  in  teaching  history  in  the  colleges 
was  akin  to  his  general  interest  in  education.  He  was 
called  on  for  advice  from  at  least  two  quarters  in  1835, 
which  shows  that  he  was  considered  an  authority  on 
the  subject.  He  appealed  to  Ticknor,  who  was  travel 
ing  in  Europe,  to  gather  information  for  him  on  the 
teaching  of  history  by  lectures.  Ticknor 's  reply  was 
not  reassuring,  so  far  as  the  British  universities  were 
concerned.  Professor  Smyth,  of  Cambridge,  gave  him 
no  hope  of  reformation  from  the  two  English  uni 
versities.  Ticknor  himself  said  he  would  get  abundant 
information  in  Germany,  where  the  work  of  Heeren 
was  probably  best  worth  while.  He  added  :  "Nothing 
would  be  more  effective  in  promoting  the  usefulness 
of  any  college  among  us  than  to  have  history,  statistics, 
and  geography  in  its  philosophical  as  well  as  its  practi 
cal  extent,  thoroughly  taught  by  lectures,  accompanied 
with  maps,  etc.,  as  is  done  at  every  university  in  Ger 
many  and  most  of  the  gymnasiums.  But  this  cannot 
be  done  with  us,  as  long  as  every  student  is  obliged  to 
go  through  every  study,  —  a  point  I  have  struggled 
against  so  long  that  I  am,  as  you  know,  tired  out,  and 
the  result  of  which  plainly  is  that  no  new  branches, 
however  useful,  can  now  be  introduced,  nor  any  of 
the  old  ones  carried  out  to  practical  thoroughness."  l 

In  1836  Sparks  was  offered  the  Alford  professorship 
at  Harvard.  The  subjects  included  were  moral  philos 
ophy,  metaphysics,  natural  theology,  political  econ- 

i  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  363. 


126  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

omy,  and  civil  polity.  Two  things  caused  him  to 
decline  the  offer :  he  was  too  busy  with  other  things, 
and  he  did  not  like  "the  routine  of  a  college  life  as 
practised  in  our  universities."  To  President  Quincy 
he  said  that  a  professorship  of  history  would  be  more 
to  his  liking,  and  the  president  said  he  hoped  that 
Sparks  would  yet  become  connected  with  the  uni 
versity.  In  1838  President  Quincy  reopened  the 
question,  this  time  offering  the  newly  established 
McLean  professorship  of  history.  The  offer  was 
taken  under  consideration,  and  immediately  the  over 
seers  voted  to  elect  him.  It  was  not  until  he  had 
given  the  matter  a  long  and  careful  consideration  that 
Sparks  finally  accepted  the  position.  His  doubts 
were  due  to  the  fear  that  professorial  duties  might 
interfere  with  historical  labors ;  and  it  was  only  when 
concessions  were  made  by  which  such  interference 
was  made  unnecessary  that  he  consented.  It  was 
agreed  that  his  duties  were  not  to  demand  more  than 
four  months  in  each  year,  that  his  lectures  should 
all  come  within  that  time,  and  that  he  should  have  the 
rest  of  the  year  for  his  own  plans.  The  salary  was 
two  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  the  position  to  which 
he  was  called  was  the  first  professorship  of  history 
in  an  American  college. 

Up  to  1838  the  history  taught  in  Harvard,  as  in 
other  similar  American  institutions,  was  a  small  amount 
of  general  and  ancient  history,  taught  by  tutors  or 
instructors,  generally  to  the  members  of  the  Fresh- 


JARED    SPARKS  127 

man  and  Sophomore  classes.  The  McLean  professor 
was  to  have  work  of  a  higher  and  more  advanced  kind, 
and  his  students  were  to  be  upper  classmen.  As 
Sparks  himself  put  it,  "Mr.  Quincy  said  it  was  not 
proposed  that  I  should  have  anything  to  do  in  the  way 
of  teaching  by  recitation  from  books.  Occasional 
examinations  and  lectures  were  proposed.  For  any 
thing  else  I  am  not  to  be  responsible.  Let  the  tutors 
drill  the  boys."  1 

Sparks  assumed  the  duties  of  his  professorship  on 
March  12,  1839,  giving  this  term  one  course  of  lectures 
on  the  American  Revolution,  from  1763  to  1783.  "I 
have  adopted,"  he  said,  "Botta's  history  as  a  text 
book,  because  I  can  procure  no  other;  all  the  other 
histories  of  the  same  period  being  out  of  print.  Once 
a  week  I  shall  read  to  the  class  written  lectures ;  that 
is,  one  of  the  three  weekly  exercises  will  be  of  this  sort. 
My  object  is  to  communicate  instruction  in  all  the 
exercises,  and  not  merely  to  discipline  the  students  in 
the  habits  of  study,  which  has  been  done  sufficiently 
in  the  early  part  of  their  college  life."  2  In  the  fol 
lowing  years  two  courses,  instead  of  one,  were  given, 
on  several  subjects.  It  seems  that  the  lecturer  did 
not  take  his  responsibility  for  the  students  very  seri 
ously.  He  was  not  a  pioneer  in  any  but  a  temporal 
sense.  He  filled  the  first  distinct  chair  of  history  in 
the  United  States,  without  exerting  a  deep  influence 

1  H.  B.  Adams,  "History  in  American  Colleges  and  Universities,"  21. 

2  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  375. 


128  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

on  it ;  and  it  was  for  his  successors,  men  of  less  renown 
as  writers,  to  give  to  history  teaching  at  Harvard  that 
peculiar  stamp  of  excellence  which  is  to-day  known  in 
all  the  scholastic  world. 

Success  as  a  historian  and  success  as  schoolmaster 
require  such  distinct  qualities  of  mind  that  it  is  rare 
to  find  them  in  the  possession  of  one  person.  Love  of 
detail,  patience  in  drill,  the  power  of  pressing  laggards 
to  action,  and  a  tendency  to  consider  small  things 
equally  important  with  large  things,  are  essential  to 
success  in  the  schoolroom :  the  power  of  seeing  facts 
in  large  relations,  the  willingness  to  lose  touch  with 
human  nature  while  the  libraries  and  garrets  are  ran 
sacked  for  sources  :  —  in  short,  many  traits  which  make 
a  man  seem  queer,  inconsequential,  dreamy,  or  ab 
stracted  in  comparison  with  ordinary  men  are  too  often 
the  characteristics  of  a  successful  writer  of  history. 
Certain  it  is,  that  Sparks  did  not  make  himself  a  terror 
to  his  students.  He  disliked  examinations  as  much 
as  they,  going  on  the  basis  of  many  another  theorist 
that  learning  should  be  sought  for  its  own  sake.  He 
proved  himself,  says  Professor  Adams,  "a  genial, 
kindly,  and  extremely  popular  man,  both  as  professor 
and  president."  The  students  felt  that  he  was  on 
their  side,  and  he  yielded  to  their  sense  of  well  being 
rather  than  set  up  standards  by  which  they  were  to  be 
moulded  into  ideals  higher  than  those  he  found  in  them. 

In  Sparks  we  have  an  early  instance  of  the  union, 
so  common  in  our  own  day,  of  the  functions  of  historian 


JARED    SPARKS  129 

and  history  teacher  in  one  man.  This  custom  has 
for  its  excuse  the  difficulty  a  man  finds  in  making  a 
living  out  of  history  alone.  But  it  is  not  an  ideal 
system.  Let  him  teach  who  can  best  teach,  and  let 
him  write  who  can  best  write,  would  be  the  guarantee 
of  the  best  teaching  and  the  best  writing. 

In  June,  1840,  the  McLean  professor,  his  lectures  at 
college  over  for  the  year,  sailed  for  London  to  gather 
materials.  "Having  finished,"  he  wrote,  "the  lit 
erary  undertakings  which  have  been  so  long  on  my 
hands,  what  could  I  do  better  than  to  engage  in 
another?  I  am  preparing  to  write  a  formidable  his 
tory  of  the  American  Revolution."  The  friends  he 
had  made  in  1828  received  him  kindly,  the  records 
were  again  placed  at  his  disposal,  and  he  spent  five 
happy  months  going  through  documents  and  ordering 
copies  in  London  and  Paris.  Lord  Holland  asked 
him  if  he  wished  to  be  introduced  at  court.  "I  told 
him,"  runs  the  diary,  "that  I  had  no  such  wish;  that 
my  objects  in  coming  to  London  were  of  a  specific 
kind,  which  if  I  could  accomplish,  I  should  be  satisfied, 
but  that  going  to  court  would  not  contribute  to  advance 
them ;  and  that  my  curiosity  did  not  lead  that  way."  J 

In  the  French  archives  he  found  a  letter  from  Frank 
lin  to  Vergennes,  dated  December  6,  1782,  six  days 
after  the  preliminary  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  an 
nouncing  that  the  writer  was  transmitting  inclosed 
a  map  on  which  were  marked  in  a  red  line  the  bound- 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  380. 


130  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

aries  fixed  by  the  treaty  just  agreed  upon.  In  1841 
the  Northeastern  boundary  question  was  acute,  and 
Sparks  began  to  look  for  the  inclosure.  After  much 
searching  he  found  a  map  with  the  boundaries  marked 
by  a  red  line  drawn  in  ink ;  but  it  had  nothing  to  show 
that  it  was  the  identical  map  that  Franklin  sent  to 
Vergennes,  although  it  was  the  only  map  to  be  found 
with  the  boundaries  drawn  in  red  ink.  Moreover,  the 
red  line  was  so  drawn  as  to  favor  the  British  bound 
ary  contention.  Sparks  took  accurate  copies  of  map 
and  letter,  and  took  them  with  him  when  he  returned 
to  Boston.  He  submitted  them  to  Webster,  who  used 
them  to  restrain  the  enthusiasm  of  the  politicians  of 
Maine,  the  information,  meanwhile,  being  withheld 
from  the  public.  Webster  concluded  the  treaty  to 
which  bis  name  is  attached,  gaining  for  the  United 
States  more  than  half  of  the  disputed  area. 

Soon  after  the  treaty  was  signed  it  became  known 
that  Sparks  had  furnished  Webster  with  a  map  accord 
ing  to  which  we  had  made  a  shrewd  bargain.  The 
news  was  carried  to  London,  where  much  indignation 
was  felt.  Sparks,  so  recently  admitted  to  the  public 
archives,  now  appeared  as  a  chief  witness  for  his  gov 
ernment  in  a  great  boundary  dispute.  It  was  inti 
mated  that  he  had  drawn  from  those  archives  evidence 
that  was  used  against  a  government  which  had  trusted 
him  completely.  This  damaging  charge  was  widely 
spread  in  England,  and  it  was  long  accepted  as  true; 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  Sparks  used 


JARED    SPARKS  131 

the  information  he  secured  in  the  public  offices  in 
England  for  any  other  than  historical  purposes. 

Later  developments  took  away  some  of  the  feeling 
against  him  by  showing  that  the  red-line  map  was, 
after  all,  of  little  significance.  The  discovery  of  a 
map  in  the  king's  library,  on  which  Oswald,  one  of  the 
British  commissioners  making  the  treaty  of  1782,  had 
drawn  a  boundary  line  nearly  coincident  with  the 
American  claim,  a  map  on  which  was  written  in  King 
George's  own  hand  "boundary  described  by  Mr. 
Oswald,"  showed  conclusively  that  our  claim  had 
been  much  better  than  the  Paris  map  seemed  at  first 
to  indicate.  The  discovery  reduced  Sparks's  red- 
line  map  to  a  matter  of  no  importance.  Sparks,  how 
ever,  would  not  admit  that  the  maps  had  any  bear 
ing  on  the  controversy.  There  was,  he  said,  no  reason 
for  holding  that  Oswald's  map  described  the  boundary 
actually  agreed  upon.  He  dismissed  the  subject  in 
saying  :  "These  two  maps,  therefore,  leave  the  matter 
just  where  it  was  before  they  were  discovered."  1 

In  1849  Sparks  was  elected  president  of  Harvard 
University,  succeeding  Edward  Everett,  president 
from  1846  to  1849.  When  first  approached  on  the 
subject,  he  said  that  he  could  not  charge  himself  with 
the  "mass  of  small  details,  which  properly  belonged 
to  the  subordinate  instructors,"  and  he  added  that  if 
he  accepted  some  changes  would  have  to  be  made  in 
the  curriculum,  "particularly  in  what  is  called  the 

1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  411. 


132  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

'Elective  System'."  Assured  that  these  difficulties 
would  be  removed,  he  brought  up  another  objection : 
"I  told  him  that  I  had  also  literary  labors  in  hand, 
which  I  could  not  consent  to  relinquish,  and  that  this 
should  be  fully  understood  by  the  corporation  if  they 
should  think  of  electing  me."  1  Again  he  was  reas 
sured  and  no  further  objection  was  made.  At  the 
inauguration  he  was  inducted  with  great  ceremony, 
a  thing  against  which  he  protested  ineffectually.  To 
him  faculty  processions  seemed  tiresome,  wasteful, 
and  unimpressive.  In  investing  the  candidate  the 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  in  alluding  to  Sparks 's 
historical  achievements,  spoke  as  follows : 

"Having  performed  this  service  for  history  and  for 
the  literary  world,  and  done  justice  to  the  memories 
of  distinguished  men,  who  have  served  their  genera 
tions  well  and  passed  away,  it  is  appropriate  that 
you  should  now  come  up  to  this  seat  of  learning  and 
enter  upon  the  more  important  work  of  instructing 
the  youth  of  the  republic." 2  Probably  most  men 
in  1849  would  have  agreed  that  to  teach  was  a  more 
important  work  than  writing  history. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  existence 
of  two  parties  in  the  Harvard  faculty.  One,  led  by 
George  Ticknor,  demanded  reforms  in  the  course  of 
instruction,  and  the  other  wished  to  hold  in  a  measure 
to  the  old  system.  About  1838  the  reformers  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  two  of  their  important  ideas  adopted. 
1  Adams,  "Life  of  Sparks,"  II,  438  2  Ibid.,  443 


JARED    SPARKS  133 

One  was  the  introduction  of  a  number  of  elective 
courses  in  all  but  the  Freshman  class.  The  other 
was  the  adoption  of  an  idea  which  Bancroft  and  Ticknor 
had  contended  for  as  early  as  1822,  the  division  of  the 
Freshman  and  Sophomore  classes  into  divisions  ac 
cording  to  proficiency.1  Between  1838  and  1849 
several  restrictions  had  been  placed  on  the  elective 
system,  one  of  them  being  adopted  in  1848.  The 
recovery  of  influence  in  the  faculty  by  those  who  fa 
vored  the  old  plan  was  coincident  with  the  election  of 
Sparks  as  president.  He  was  opposed  to  the  elective 
system,  and  his  inaugural  address  left  no  doubt  about 
his  opinion  in  regard  to  it.  But  he  did  not  go  so  far 
as  to  veto  all  electives.  He  recognized  the  terrors  of 
mathematics,  and  he  was  not  willing  to  force  it  on 
all  students ;  and  some  other  features  of  the  elective 
system  continued  to  be  tolerated.  As  for  the  division 
of  the  lower  classes  according  to  proficiency,  it  was 
abolished  in  favor  of  an  alphabetical  arrangement. 
Sparks  said  that  the  previous  method  sacrificed  the 
poor  students  for  the  good.  His  opponents  may  as 
well  have  said  that  his  method  sacrificed  the  brilliant 
for  the  poor  students. 

Sparks  resigned  the  presidency  of  the  university 
January  27,  1853,  having  held  it  four  years  and  eight 
days.  His  short  term  had  worn  his  spirits.  He  was 
not  fitted  for  the  many  small  duties  of  the  office,  and 
in  spite  of  his  early  resolutions  he  was  overwhelmed 

1  Bancroft  to  S.  A.  Eliot,  Dec.  3,  1822.     Bancroft  MSS,  Mass.  Histl.  Soc. 


134  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

with  such  details.  There  were  letters  to  write  to 
parents  and  to  applicants  for  entrance,  college  disci 
pline  had  to  be  supervised,  and  many  tedious  matters 
were  thrust  upon  him.  Such  things  were  very  uncon 
genial  to  a  man  whose  most  devoted  pursuits  had  been 
the  collection  and  interpretation  of  historical  docu 
ments.  His  reports  were  well  written,  as  became  one 
who  had  such  a  grasp  of  statistics  and  historical  narra 
tive  as  he.  But  he  was  not  at  ease  in  the  presidential 
chair.  Moreover,  bad  health  added  to  his  distress. 
Neuralgia  attacked  his  right  arm,  and  in  1851  an  acci 
dent  increased  its  lameness.  Walking  across  Charles 
River  bridge  into  Boston  on  a  starlit  evening,  he  was 
knocked  down  by  a  chaise  carelessly  driven  at  a  rapid 
rate.  His  shoulder-bone  was  broken  and  his  side 
severely  bruised.  Although  these  injuries  yielded  to 
treatment,  the  nerves  seemed  to  be  permanently 
injured,  so  that  the  neuralgia  fastened  itself  more 
firmly  in  the  right  arm.  One  result  was  the  impair 
ment  of  his  power  to  write.  He  was  not  able  to  accus 
tom  himself  to  dictation,  and  the  large  correspondence 
he  carried  on  during  his  later  years  was  the  source  of 
much  pain  in  the  actual  performance. 

The  domestic  life  of  Jared  Sparks  was  uneventful. 
Most  of  his  literary  work  was  done  in  the  days  of  his 
bachelorhood.  In  1832  he  was  married  to  Frances 
Anne  Allen,  of  Hyde  Park,  New  York,  whom  rapid 
tuberculosis  took  away  in  1835.  In  1839  he  married 
Mary  Crowninshield  Silsbee,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts, 


JARED    SPARKS  135 

who  survived  him.  To  his  own  family,  as  to  every 
one  else,  his  actions  were  marked  by  singular  courtesy 
and  gentleness.  His  widow,  who  was  his  junior  by 
twenty  years,  long  lived  in  Cambridge  in  the  comfort 
able  house  he  bought  for  her.  She  was  most  careful 
of  his  fame,  and  in  her  old  age  gave  the  most  efficient 
encouragement  to  Professor  Herbert  B.  Adams,  whom 
she  selected  to  write  the  "Life  and  Writings  of  Jared 
Sparks."  l 

After  retiring  from  the  presidency  of  Harvard,  Sparks 
lived  quietly  in  Cambridge  until  his  death  in  1866. 
He  published  only  one  work  in  this  interval,  his  "Cor 
respondence  of  the  American  Revolution,"  in  four 
volumes.  Much  of  his  time  was  given  to  answer 
ing  inquiries  that  came  from  every  quarter.  He  was 
looked  upon  as  the  Nestor  of  American  historians,  and 
many  a  man  called  on  him  for  information  which 
could  as  easily  have  been  had  in  an  encyclopedia. 
To  such  requests  Sparks  gave  free  and  generous  re 
sponse. 

It  is  seldom  that  an  American  historian  has  worn 
the  harness  of  his  profession  until  the  last.  Too  often 
his  last  years  are  spent  in  some  form  of  easy  occupa 
tion  that  leaves  unemployed  talents  and  information 
that  are  ripe  for  the  best  kind  of  results.  Sparks, 
as  has  already  been  observed,  was  particularly  liable 
to  this  charge.  The  last  twenty-five  years  of  the 
seventy-seven  he  lived,  a  period  during  which  he  was 

1  Published  in  1893. 


136  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

the  leading  scholar  in  American  history,  were  given 
over  to  things  which  a  dozen  other  men  could  have 
done  equally  well. 

In  the  United  States  literary  ambition  is  sometimes 
a  means  to  an  end.  It  is  to  the  aspirant  a  means  of 
securing  wealth,  personal  influence,  or  professional 
appointments.  When  these  ends  are  attained,  liter 
ature  may  be  bowed  into  the  attic.  Such  writers, 
historians  or  what  not,  are,  intellectually  speaking, 
nothing  less  than  men  of  commerce.  The  real  his 
torians  are  those  who  love  history  for  its  own  sake, 
who  love  it  when  they  are  old  as  when  they  were 
young,  and  whose  best  wish  is  that  when  death  over 
takes  them  it  may  find  them  in  the  harness  of  actual 
composition.  To  them  history  is  a  profession,  a 
profession  worthy  of  its  hire,  and  in  itself  a  sufficient 
reward  for  the  hardest  efforts. 

In  the  light  of  these  observations,  it  is  somewhat 
uncertain  what  should  be  said  of  Sparks.  If  he  was 
attracted  from  his  best  field  by  the  flattering  prospect 
of  the  first  distinct  professorship  of  history  in  America, 
and  still  further  by  the  offer  of  the  presidency  of  the 
oldest  American  college,  he  did  no  more  than  many 
men  would  do  to-day  with  less  excuse.  That  he  had 
in  his  early  years  an  exalted  appreciation  of  the  intel 
lectual  life  is  seen  in  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  written  in  1825  : 

"There  is,  as  you  intimate,  very  little  harmony  between  riches 
and  the  love  of  letters.  They  can  hardly  dwell  in  the  same  house. 


JARED    SPARKS  137 

It  must  be  so ;  it  is  a  law  of  nature ;  one  deep  passion  drives  away 
all  others,  and  all  experience  testifies,  that  no  love  is  more  absorb 
ing  than  that  of  riches.  Yet  there  is  nothing  incompatible  between 
wealth  and  wisdom,  virtue,  kindness,  and  good  feeling.  I  see  them 
every  day  united  in  an  eminent  degree.  My  absorbing  passion  is 
for  books,  knowledge,  and  thought;  and  I  would  not  exchange  it 
for  all  the  wealth  of  the  Indies."  l 

Sparks's  fame  would  have  been  higher  if  he  had  re 
mained  true  to  the  " absorbing  passion"  he  here 
avowed.2 

1  Sparks  to  George  Bancroft,  Dec.  26,  1825.  Sparks  MSS.  It  is  inter 
esting  to  note  that  Bancroft  himself  became  a  rich  man  and  divided  his 
historical  interest  with  politics  and  diplomacy. 

2  The  Sparks  Manuscripts 

The  Sparks  Manuscripts,  preserved  in  the  library  of  Harvard  University, 
and  open  by  his  direction  to  all  properly  accredited  students  of  history,  are 
classified  in  one  hundred  and  ninety-three  bound  volumes  and  bundles. 
They  make  one  of  the  most  valuable  collections  in  the  United  States. 
They  are  arranged  as  English,  French,  Spanish,  and  Miscellaneous.  A 
calendar  was  prepared  by  Justin  Winsor,  containing  eighty-eight  pages.  It 
was  published  in  the  "Library  of  Harvard  University,  Bibliographical  Con 
tributions,"  No.  22,  Cambridge,  1889.  See  also  the  "Catalogue  of  the 
Library  of  Jared  Sparks,"  Cambridge,  1871,  pp.  213-230,  where  there  is  a 
condensed  list  of  the  papers  in  the  Sparks  collection. 


CHAPTER  III 

GEORGE  BANCROFT 

1.   Student  and  Schoolmaster 

GEORGE  BANCROFT,  like  Sparks,  was  the  product  of  the 
early  and  enthusiastic  phase  of  New  England  Unitari- 
anism.  His  father,  Rev.  Aaron  Bancroft,  was  min 
ister  at  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  and  author  of  a 
Life  of  Washington  widely  read  in  his  day  and  still 
found  in  the  older  libraries.  His  mother  was  a  woman 
of  strong  character  and  excellent  mind.  The  Worcester 
parsonage  was  the  scene  of  frugality  and  liberal  think 
ing.  Its  head  was  never  willing  to  admit  that  he  was 
not  a  congregationalist,  but  he  encouraged  his  children 
to  solve  their  own  problems  in  their  own  ways,  and 
he  himself  was  openly  against  Calvinism. 

His  son  George,  born  at  Worcester,  October  3,  1800, 
early  gave  promise  of  great  ability.  He  was  sent  to 
Phillips  Academy,  at  Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  and  in 
1813  entered  Harvard,  where  he  graduated  in  1817, 
before  he  was  seventeen  years  old.  During  his  first 
and  second  years  in  residence  Edward  Everett,  who 
himself  had  graduated  with  first  honors  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  was  teaching  Latin  and  Greek.  In  1815 
Everett  sailed  for  Europe,  returning  in  1819,  two  of 
the  intervening  years  having  been  passed  at  Gottingen. 

138 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  139 

In  Germany  he  remembered  his  able  student  at  Har 
vard  and  advised  President  Kirkland  to  send  him  to 
Gottingen.  The  result  was  that  Harvard  men  raised 
a  purse  of  seven  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  three  years 
and  to  it  added  one  thousand  dollars  for  a  year's  travel 
in  Italy  and  France,  which,  with  the  small  amount  — 
five  hundred  dollars  —  his  father  was  able  to  add,  suf 
ficed  for  four  years  abroad.1  "Little  Bancroft,"  as  one 
of  the  other  Americans  at  Gottingen  called  him,2  made 
a  good  impression  on  his  professors  and  took  the 
doctor's  degree  with  credit  in  1820.  The  next  year 
was  spent  in  Berlin  where  he  attended  lectures.  In 
the  summer  of  1822  he  returned  to  his  father's  home 
in  Worcester. 

He  found  awaiting  him  a  letter  from  Professor  An 
drews  Norton,  of  Harvard,  with  an  invitation  to  visit 
him  in  his  home.  The  invitation  was  accepted  and 
two  weeks  in  Cambridge  were  divided  equally  between 
two  hosts,  President  Kirkland  and  Professor  Norton. 
On  this  visit  Bancroft  was  offered  and  accepted  the 
position  of  tutor  in  Greek  at  Harvard.  He  returned 
to  Worcester  full  of  happiness  and  confidence  in  his 
future.  Soon  came  a  letter  from  Norton  which  turned 
his  joy  into  mourning.  His  own  words  written  several 
months  later  contain  our  best  intimation  of  what  had 
happened.  He  wrote  to  a  friend  : 

1  President  Kirkland  to  Bancroft,  May  11,  1821.     Bancroft  MSS,  Mass. 
Histl.  Soc. 

2  Anna  E.  Ticknor,  "Life  of  Joseph  Green  Cogswell,"  107. 


140  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

"I  had  hardly  been  at  home  many  days  before  I  received  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Norton  which  contained  the  most  unprovoked  attack  on 
my  feelings  and  character,  the  most  unfounded  censures  and  un 
kind  reproofs.  You  will  smile  perhaps  at  my  calling  the  censures 
unfounded.  I  repeat  it,  however ;  they  were  unfounded.  Never 
did  one  man  more  totally  mistake  the  character  of  another  than  he 
did  mine.  Now  you  have  been  told  that  I  was  offended  at  this 
letter.  I  was  not  offended  :  I  was  wounded  :  my  spirit  almost  bent 
beneath  it.  Why?  First  because  Mr.  Norton,  I  had  believed, 
loved  me,  and  I  certainly  loved  him  most  sincerely;  and  now  in 
this  letter  he  tells  me  he  deems  ft  'desirable'  that  I  should  give  over 
visiting  at  his  house.  Secondly,  it  is  my  misery  to  have  lived  on 
charity,  while  abroad,  and  Mr.  Norton  was  one  of  those  whose 
bread  I  ate  —  bitter  enough  is  the  taste  of  it  hi  the  belly."  1 

Bancroft  kept  many  of  his  letters,  but  the  cruel  lines 
from  Professor  Norton  are  not  among  them.  A  copy 
of  his  reply,  however,  is  preserved,  and  from  it  is  taken 
this  vigorous  utterance  :  "Upon  your  house  I  shall  not 
intrude :  such  is  your  desire :  I  comply  with  it ;  I 
promise  you  I  will  never  enter  it  except  on  a  visit  of 
duty  or  business,  till  you  come  to  me  and  solicit  it,  as 
I  expect  you  will  do,  when  the  future  shall  have  shown 
you,  that  your  views  of  my  character  are  unjust."  2 

No  information  is  available  on  Norton's  side  of  this 
affair.  That  he  said,  "You  have  disappointed  me," 
we  know  from  Bancroft  himself.  Perhaps  we  may  un 
derstand  the  matter  better  by  remembering  how  formal 
were  New  Englanders  a  hundred  years  ago.  Norton 
himself  was  of  the  straitest  sect  among  his  fellows,  and 

1  Bancroft  to  S.  A.  Eliot,  April  2,  1823.     Bancroft  MSS,  Mass.  Histl. 
Soc. 

2  Bancroft  to  Andrews  Norton,  Sept.  18,  1822.     Bancroft  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  141 

he  had  early  begun  to  suspect  his  protege  of  uncon 
ventional  ways.  "Our  society  is  such,"  he  observed 
to  Bancroft  in  1821,  "as  to  require  an  extraordinary 
degree  of  attention  to  manners,  in  order  that  one  may 
be  respectable  and  useful.  .  .  .  There  is  no  place,  I 
believe,  where  anything  implying  a  considerable  defect 
in  character,  anything  like  ostentation  or  vanity,  any 
thing  outre  or  bizarre  (if  I  may  use  two  French  words 
at  once)  is  observed  with  a  keener  perception  of  ridi 
cule,  or  tends  more  to  the  disadvantage  of  him  in 
whom  it  is  discovered."  Bancroft  might  have  replied 
that  there  were  many  New  Englanders,  among  them 
President  Kirkland  and  George  Ticknor,  to  whom  his 
manners  were  not  repulsive.  That  such  a  man  was 
offended  in  Bancroft  is  not  surprising.  The  younger 
man  possessed  a  very  warm  fancy ;  florid  phrases  and 
figures  of  speech  rolled  from  him  as  rapidly  as  duller 
words  come  from  an  ordinary  man.  In  Europe  he  ac 
quired  many  customs  which  in  his  enthusiasm  he  began 
to  use  among  the  friends  of  his  youth.  It  is  said  that 
he  greeted  Professor  Norton  —  of  all  men  !  —  in  the 
European  fashion,  with  a  kiss  on  each  cheek.  The 
effect  was  consternation. 

This  unpleasant  turn  of  affairs  did  not  serve  as  a 
warning  to  Bancroft.  He  was  supremely  confident  of 
himself,  he  imitated  the  German  professors  in  external 
matters,  he  carried  himself  with  the  air  of  a  military 
man,  he  was  very  exacting  of  the  students,  and  finally, 
he  had  decided  ideas  that  the  college  was  dying  of  anti- 


142  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

quated  ideas.  Everett  and  Ticknor  had  returned  from 
Germany  with  no  such  affectations ;  and  their  friends 
had  remarked  with  delight  that  they  were  unspoiled  by 
their  travels.  Bancroft  was  so  unlike  them  that  the 
opinion  spread  rapidly  that  he  was  intolerable.  He 
ventured  to  preach,  but  the  hearers  shook  their  heads, 
and  in  a  few  months  his  sermons  were  laid  away  never 
to  be  taken  out  again. 

How  much  Professor  Norton's  attitude  had  to  do  in 
the  crystallization  of  this  reputation  does  not  appear. 
Certain  it  is  that  he  did  not  do  justice  to  the  young 
man.  Bancroft  was  a  youth  of  great  ability,  he  was 
very  emotional  and  very  desirous  of  success.  A  little 
more  tolerance  and  patience,  with  some  kind  advice 
and  the  lapse  of  time,  would  have  produced  much  im 
provement.  Norton  was  unyielding.  Following  the 
promptings  of  a  peculiar  kind  of  Puritan  conscience, 
he  held  that  a  thing  which  was  unpleasant  had  to  be 
trampled  on.  He  was  an  influential  member  of  the 
faculty.  Bancroft,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  dis 
posed  to  benefit  by  opposition.  When  punished  he 
rose  in  opposition  to  the  chastisers ;  and  in  Harvard  he 
soon  lay  on  a  bed  of  thorns. 

Two  broad-minded  men  there  were  who  understood 
him  and  left  testimonials  of  his  good  qualities,  two 
besides  George  Ticknor,  with  whom  he  long  maintained 
friendly  intercourse.  One  was  President  Kirkland, 
who  was  ever  generous  to  his  junior  faculty,  as  to 
all  kinds  of  people.  He  made  a  strong  impression 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  143 

on  the  heart  of  the  young  man,  who,  looking  back  in 
later  life  to  those  days  of  distress,  recalled  the  kindness 
of  his  early  friend  by  the  establishment  of  the  John 
Thornton  Kirkland  fellowship  to  aid  worthy  students 
studying  in  foreign  countries.  "To  you,  and  to  you 
altogether,"  said  Bancroft,  five  years  after  he  escaped 
out  of  his  unhappiness  at  Harvard,  "and  to  you  alone 
do  I  hold  myself  indebted  for  all  that  renders  my  life 
useful  and  honourable."  The  other  penetrating  eye 
that  saw  beneath  the  mannerisms  the  redeeming  traits 
of  the  young  instructor  was  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson's. 
After  hearing  Bancroft  preach  in  1823  Emerson  wrote : 

"I  am  happy  to  contradict  the  rumors  about  Bancroft.  I  heard 
him  preach  at  New  South  a  few  Sabbaths  since,  and  was  much 
delighted  with  his  eloquence.  So  were  all.  He  needs  a  great  deal 
of  cutting  and  pruning,  but  we  think  him  an  infant  Hercules.  All 
who  know  him  agree  in  this,  that  he  has  improved  his  time  thor 
oughly  at  Gottingen.  He  has  become  a  perfect  Greek  scholar,  and 
knows  well  all  that  he  pretends  to  know;  as  to  divinity,  he  has 
never  studied,  but  was  approbated  abroad." l 

A  man  who  "knows  well  all  that  he  pretends  to  know" 
is  a  rare  gift  from  the  gods. 

It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  in  1822  the  methods 
of  instruction  in  American  colleges  were  very  unsatis 
factory.  Hearing  boys  drone  through  their  lessons, 
scolding  the  laggards,  and  commending  the  faithful 
were  the  chief  duties  of  the  instructors.  Harvard  was 
no  exception  to  the  rule.  Now  Bancroft,  and  Ticknor 

1  Howe,  "Life  of  George  Bancroft,"  I,  165,  n. 


144  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

before  him,  had  come  into  contact  at  Gottingen  with 
men  who  were  masters  of  their  subjects,  men  full  of  the 
critical  spirit  and  capable  by  eloquent  lectures  of 
inspiring  their  students  into  enthusiastic  pursuit  of 
learning.  They  came  back  to  Harvard  hoping  to  intro 
duce  methods  nearly  like  those  in  use  at  Gottingen. 
'A  small  section  of  the  faculty  and  some  of  the  younger 
alumni  supported  them;  and  they  were  able  to  get 
their  reforms  referred  to  a  committee  of  the  faculty,  in 
whose  gentle  hands  the  matter  died.  We  need  know 
little  of  college  faculties  to  understand  how  unlikely 
the  Harvard  teaching  body  was  to  change  old  methods 
in  response  to  the  demands  of  two  young  men  fresh 
from  foreign  study.  Ticknor  had  much  practical  wis 
dom  and  accepted  the  result  in  a  sensible  way.  He 
eventually  saw  many  of  his  reforms  carried  into  opera 
tion. 

Bancroft  was  less  submissive,  and  probably  less  per 
sistent.  The  failure  of  his  efforts,  added  to  his  per 
sonal  unpopularity,  greatly  discouraged  him.  "Our 
hopes  of  a  reform  at  college,"  he  said,  May  10,  1823, 
"have  pretty  much  blown  over.  I  was  quite  sanguine 
last  term  that  we  [should]  have  affected  reforms  of  a 
most  thorough  nature.  But  the  pillars  of  ancient 
usage  stand  fast,  and  it  will  require  another  shock  to 
overturn  them."  Referring  to  his  own  experience  he 
said  :  "I  have  found  College  a  sickening  and  wearisome 
place.  Not  one  spring  of  comfort  have  I  to  draw  from. 
My  state  has  been  nothing  but  trouble,  trouble,  trouble, 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  145 

and  I  am  heartily  glad  that  the  end  of  the  year  is 
coming  so  soon."  1 

Here  we  see  Bancroft  in  one  of  his  introspective 
moods.  He  was  sensitive  and  very  emotional.  To 
President  Kirkland  he  wrote  in  the  same  year  :  "I  pray 
you,  forgive  my  seeming  restlessness  of  character.  If  I 
thought  it  necessary  or  expedient  I  would  correct  the1 
evil,  which  after  all  does  not  injure  others  and  only 
makes  me  perhaps  less  happy  than  I  might  be.  If  I 
were  not  restless  I  should  not  be  so  desirous  of  im 
provement,  or  honour,  or  knowledge,  as  I  wish  to  be. 
And  I  believe  I  have  gentleness  of  temper  enough  and 
a  contented  disposition.  Only  there  is  no  water  so 
tranquil,  that  throwing  stones  into  it  will  not  make 
waves."  2  Words  like  these  suggest  that  the  writer  of 
them  recovered  quickly  from  his  fits  of  depression  and 
carried  forward  constructive  labors. 

Indeed,  in  performing  his  individual  duties  he 
showed  great  capacity  for  doing  as  he  chose.  In  this 
realm  he  was  not  subject  to  faculty  consent;  and  he 
created  the  divisions  of  the  Freshman  Greek  class  ac 
cording  to  ability,  assigning  the  lessons  in  accordance 
with  the  capacity  to  understand  them.  The  result  was 
that  his  best  section  read  from  four  to  six  pages  of 
Greek  a  day  and  were  so  eager  to  go  forward  that  he 
had  to  hold  them  back,  while  the  poorest  division  was 
advancing  faster  than  any  previous  section  in  the  col- 

1  Bancroft  to  S.  A.  Eliot,  May  10,  1823.     Bancroft  MSS. 

2  Bancroft  to  President  Kirkland,  [May]  21,  1823,  Bancroft  MSS. 


146  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

lege.  A  boy  who  showed  that  he  deserved  it  was  pro 
moted  to  a  higher  division,  or  reduced  to  a  lower  if  he 
was  falling  behind.  "I  have  the  satisfaction,"  said 
Bancroft,  "of  knowing  that  I  have  carried  my  points 
alone,  unassisted  by  any  co-operation  whatever  from 
any  one  individual  at  Cambridge,  and  supported  by  no 
man  in  my  design  except  Mr.  Ticknor."  1 

A  year  of  this  kind  of  struggle  was  enough  for  Ban 
croft.  His  spirit  grew  sick  of  the  discipline  inflicted 
on  it.  Even  President  Kirkland,  full  of  kindness,  be 
lieved  that  the  young  man  should  change  his  environ 
ment.  The  success  with  the  divisions  in  the  Greek 
classes  may  have  suggested  the  field  of  secondary  edu 
cation.  At  any  rate,  it  was  into  that  field  that  he  now 
directed  his  steps.  At  Harvard  in  1823  was  Joseph 
Green  Cogswell,  a  graduate  in  the  year  1806,  who  had 
traveled  much  in  Europe  and  was  now  employed  in 
classifying  the  books  in  the  library.  He  and  Bancroft 
made  a  partnership  to  found  and  conduct  a  school  in 
New  England  on  the  model  of  the  German  gymnasium. 
Bancroft  described  their  ideas  in  the  following  words : 

"I  am  going  to  turn  schoolmaster.  I  long  to  become  an  inde 
pendent  man,  namely  a  man  who  lives  by  his  own  labours.  Mr. 
Cogswell  has  seen  so  much  of  the  world,  that  he  knows  it  and  its 
folly :  he  will  join  in  my  scheme :  we  will  together  establish  a 
school,  the  end  of  which  is  to  be  the  moral  and  intellectual  maturity 
of  the  mind  of  each  boy  we  take  charge  of ;  and  the  means  are  to 
be  first  and  foremost  instruction  in  the  classics.  We  intend  going 
into  the  country,  and  we  shall  choose  a  pleasant  site,  where  nature 

1  Bancroft  to  S.  A.  Eliot,  Dec.  3,  1822,  Bancroft  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  147 

in  her  loveliness  may  breathe  calmness  and  inspire  purity.  We  will 
live  retired  from  the  clamours  of  scandal  and  the  disputes  of  the 
irresolute.  We  will  delight  ourselves  with  letters,  and  instead  of 
warring  against  the  corporation  and  contending  with  scandalous 
reports,  we  will  train  up  a  few  minds  to  virtue  and  honour,  and 
hope  that  when  we  die  there  will  be  some  hands  to  throw  flowers 
over  our  tombs.  .  .  .  We  call  our  establishment  a  school,  and  we 
mean  to  consider  ourselves  as  schoolmasters.  We  might  indeed 
assume  a  pompous  name,  speak  of  instituting  a  Gymnasium :  but 
let  the  name  be  modest.  I  like  the  sound  of  the  word  School 
master."  1 

Thus  was  established  the  Round  Hill  School  at 
Northampton,  Massachusetts.  It  took  its  name  from 
the  eminence  on  which  it  was  situated,  a  hill  looking 
over  the  town  itself  and  across  meadows  and  river  to 
the  Mount  Holyoke  range,  as  beautiful  a  view  as  the 
eye  and  heart  could  desire.  Here,  from  1823  to  1834, 
the  school  ran  its  career,  drawing  a  large  number  of 
pupils  from  prominent  families  in  many  parts  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  a  notable  experiment  and  at 
tracted  attention  far  and  wide.  Its  failure  was  due  to 
bad  financial  management  and  to  the  fact  that  its  plan 
of  instruction  did  not  connect  logically  with  that  of 
the  colleges.  In  spite  of  Bancroft's  feeling  for  Harvard 
the  new  school  received  the  moral  and  practical  support 
of  President  Kirkland  and  of  a  large  number  of  Har 
vard  men  around  Boston.  Later,  when  money  was 
needed  to  develop  its  work,  a  considerable  sum  was 
lent  to  it  by  the  college  itself,  all  of  which  shows  that 
Harvard  was  interested  in  the  project. 

Ubid. 


148  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Cogswell  was  the  executive  head  of  the  school,  while 
Bancroft,  teaching  the  classics,  bore  the  heavier  part 
of  the  instruction.  N.  M.  Hentz,  whom  Ticknor  pro 
nounced  the  best  French  teacher  Harvard  had  been 
blessed  with,  took  the  modern  languages.  The  aim  of 
the  instructors  was  to  develop  to  the  best  each  boy's 
capacity  of  learning.  Said  Cogswell:  "I  do  not  form 
any  classes  but  allow  every  one  to  get  as  much  of  any 
book  which  he  is  studying,  as  he  can  do,  in  the  time 
assigned  for  that  exercise,  telling  him  that  he  may  re 
cite  as  soon  as  he  is  ready,  but  cautioning  him  at  the 
same  time,  that  the  least  failure  sends  him  back,  and 
obliges  him  to  wait  till  the  rest  have  been  brought 
to  trial." 1  Flogging  was  not  practiced  and  there 
was  an  abundance  of  vigorous  exercise  in  which 
Cogswell,  or  another  instructor,  took  the  part  of 
leader. 

A  candid  critic  of  Bancroft  who  observed  his  course 
at  Harvard  said  that  he  was  "as  a  tutor  only  the 
laughing  butt  of  all  the  college."  2  It  was  not  because 
he  was  easy  on  the  students ;  for  he  was  most  exacting. 
At  Round  Hill  he  took  the  same  course.  From  the 
Rev.  George  E.  Ellis,  a  Round  Hill  pupil,  we  have  in 
1891  this  portrayal  of  Bancroft  as  a  teacher :  "He  was 
absent-minded,  dreamy  and  often  in  abstracted  moods 
as  well  as  very  near-sighted.  I  have  seen  him  come 
into  the  recitation  room  at  an  exercise  held  before 

1  Anna  E.  Ticknor,  "Life  of  Joseph  Green  Cogswell,"  137,  143. 

2  See  Harvard  Graduates  Magazine  (Sept.  1897),  .VI,  17,  n. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  149 

breakfast,  with  a  slipper  or  shoe  on  one  foot  and  a  boot 
on  the  other.  More  than  once  he  sent  me  across  the 
road  to  his  library  for  his  spectacles.  These  were  gen 
erally  to  be  found  shut  into  a  book,  which  he  had  been 
reading  before  going  to  bed.  The  boys,  who  called 
him  familiarly  'the  Critter,'  were  fond  of  playing 
tricks  upon  him,  which  they  could  do  with  impunity, 
owing  to  his  shortness  of  vision."  1 

Dr.  Ellis  wrote  this  in  1891,  less  than  two  months 
after  Bancroft  died :  twenty -four  years  earlier  he  was 
engaged  in  a  bitter  controversy  with  the  historian,  in 
which  the  issue  came  at  last  to  a  question  of  veracity. 
Can  it  be  possible  that  unconsciously  he  allowed  his 
feelings  to  become  mixed  with  his  recollections  ?  It  is 
true,  however,  that  the  Round  Hill  boys  disliked  the 
teacher  of  Greek;  and  there  is  preserved  a  lead  plate 
whittled  out  by  one  of  their  jack-knives  and  used 
to  print  a  representation  of  Bancroft  in  the  mar 
gin  of  their  school  paper.  It  shows  him  as  a  straight 
little  man,  with  the  air  of  a  Prussian  corporal  and  the 
tail  of  the  devil  protruding  from  the  coat-tails.2  But 
we  must  not  take  too  seriously,  either  the  nicknames 
or  the  pictures  originated  by  schoolboys.  They  may 
indeed  show  that  Bancroft  was  not  popular  with  the 
pupils,  that  he  was  eccentric  and  absent-minded.  But 
he  was  highly  esteemed  by  Cogswell  as  a  teacher,  and 
after  he  ceased  to  be  a  partner  in  the  ownership  of  the 

1  See  The  Educational  Review  (April,  1891),  I,  341. 

2  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.  "  Proceedings,"  Vol.  47  (1913-14),  p.  222. 


150  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

school  he  was  employed  as  a  teacher  with  a  salary  of 
sixteen  hundred  dollars  a  year.1 

Bancroft  retired  from  Round  Hill  School  in  1831, 
having  given  nine  years  to  teaching.  When  he  began 
he  was  a  precocious  and  learned  youth,  his  mind  full 
of  the  classics,  his  imagination  teeming  with  the  hope 
of  conquering  the  intellectual  world  by  storm.  The 
years  had  brought  him  hard  struggles  against  practical 
things,  theory  had  been  softened,  and  imagination  had 
been  turned  away  from  an  ancient  Pegasus  to  more 
modern  things.  He  was  becoming  astonishingly  prac 
tical  :  in  fact,  he  was  about  to  assume  the  role  of  a 
practical  politician.  In  George  Bancroft,  the  champion 
of  Jacksonian  democracy  and  aspirant  for  a  place  in 
the  state  legislature,  it  is  hard  to  recognize  the  absent- 
minded,  near-sighted,  dreaming  "Critter"  whom  Dr. 
Ellis  described.  We  shall  not  comprehend  the  change 
in  the  man  if  we  do  not  remember  that  beneath  all  his 
scholastic  training  was  a  strong  will  and  an  unusual 
faculty  of  promoting  his  own  interests. 

2.     Literary  Apprenticeship 

It  is  not  unnatural  that  Bancroft's  first  publication 
was  a  book  of  verse.  His  temperament  was  distinctly 
imaginative,  and  his  love  of  the  classics  suggested  verse- 
making.  In  Europe  he  met  Goethe  and  Byron,  whom 
he  admired  as  the  great  men  of  their  day.  He  came 
back  from  Europe  with  a  sheaf  of  manuscript  poems, 

1  Anna  E.  Ticknor,  "Life  of  Joseph  Green  Cdgswell,"  165. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  151 

weakly  emotional  efforts,  no  better  and  no  worse  than 
the  effusions  of  bright  college  graduates  of  our  own 
day.  In  1823  these  came  out  in  a  thin  volume  of 
seventy-seven  pages  with  the  modest  title  of  "  Poems." 
In  later  life  the  author  destroyed  all  the  volumes  he 
could  lay  hands  on.  He  had  the  good  sense  to  see  that 
he  was  not  born  to  write  poetry.  He  said  that  he  had 
the  love  of  detail  that  makes  a  man  a  scholar  rather 
than  the  bold  sweep  of  fancy  that  characterizes  the 
poet. 

That  he  had  great  facility  in  learning  and  remember 
ing  facts  is  undoubted,  but  he  had  also  the  faculty  of 
lively  and  ornate  expression.  His  letters,  extracts 
from  which  are  given  below,  sparkle  with  fancy.  They 
have,  especially  in  his  early  years,  more  than  a  normal 
touch  of  youth's  spontaneity.  By  their  side  the  letters 
of  Jared  Sparks  are  as  sober  as  a  scientific  lecture. 
I  have  the  same  feelings  in  reading  Bancroft's  early 
letters  that  I  have  in  reading  those  of  John  Richard 
Green.  In  each  case  there  is  a  tone  of  verdant  ebulli 
tion  that  is  nearly  irritating.  But  it  seems  that  this 
superlative  degree  of  emotion  was  a  good  gift  of  nature ; 
for  when  softened  by  experience  and  balanced  by  a 
vast  amount  of  solid  information,  it  gave  light  and 
sparkle  to  what  would  otherwise  have  been  mere 
didactic  writing. 

During  his  residence  in  Northampton  Bancroft's 
literary  efforts  were  expended  in  preparing  text-books 
and  reviews.  Undertaking  to  teach  Greek  as  it  was 


152  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

taught  in  Germany,  he  found  it  necessary  to  have 
better  text-books  than  were  in  use  in  the  American 
schools.  It  was  like  his  resolute  and  originating  mind 
that  he  prepared  such  books  himself  without  delay. 
In  1824  he  published  an  abridgment  of  Buttmann's 
Greek  Grammar  and  a  translation  of  Heeren's  "Re 
flections  on  the  Politics  of  Greece."  The  following 
year  he  translated  from  the  German,  Jacobs's  "Latin 
Reader,"  in  1826  Nepos's  "De  Vita  Excellentium  Im- 
peratorum"  with  English  notes,  and  in  1829  a  transla 
tion  of  Zumpt's  "  Latin  Grammar."  These  books  were 
esteemed  the  most  modern  of  their  kind.  They  were 
largely  used  in  the  schools  of  Europe  and  became  pop 
ular  in  the  United  States.  The  returns  from  them 
were  financially  important  to  the  translator. 

It  will  be  observed  that  all  these  books  were  in  the 
classical  field.  Here  Bancroft  at  this  stage  of  his 
career  felt  his  greatest  interest.  Had  he  continued 
to  teach,  posterity  should  have  to  deal  with  him,  if  it 
took  any  notice  at  all,  as  a  Greek  or  Latin  scholar. 
He  had  keen  appreciation  of  exact  scholarship  and  he 
had  drunk  deeply  of  the  spirit  of  criticism  in  a  day 
when  the  world  needed  the  critical  attitude  more  than 
anything  else.  But  he  was  not  to  be  a  teacher.  By 
1831  he  himself  had  come  to  realize  his  limitations, 
and  he  was  prepared  to  quit  the  schoolroom.  Perhaps 
the  remark  of  Mrs.  Lyman,  one  of  the  best  observers 
then  in  Northampton,  may  throw  light  on  the  condi 
tion  that  determined  his  future  course.  She  said : 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  153 

"I  am  very  glad  you  are  pleased  with  Dr.  Bancroft.  There  is 
no  member  of  his  family  [in  the  school]  who  is  half  so  interesting 
as  he  is,  and,  notwithstanding  his  cracked  voice  and  shaking  head, 
there  are  few  who  in  the  vigor  of  youth  can  write  as  well."  x 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  marked  peculiarities 
of  manner,  which  limited  his  teaching,  he  was  an 
interesting  man  socially  and  he  wrote  well.  In  the 
future  it  was  as  a  writer  and  as  a  man  who  made 
friends  among  his  fellows  that  Bancroft  distinguished 
himself. 

The  first  plain  allusion  to  history  in  the  Bancroft 
letters  is  encountered  in  1828.  Writing  to  President 
Kirkland  he  described  a  project  for  a  complete  course 
in  history.  Just  a  week  earlier  he  had  signed  the 
preface  of  a  translation  of  Heeren's  "Geschichte  der 
Staaten  des  Altertums,"  which  appeared  with  the  title 
"History  of  the  States  of  Antiquity."  This  he  con 
sidered  the  first  volume  of  the  course,  and  three  others 
were  to  follow.  For  the  period  extending  from  1492  to 
1821,  he  proposed  to  translate  Heeren's  "Geschichte 
des  europaischen  Staatensystem."  For  the  Middle 
Ages  he  would  write  the  volume  or  abridge  an  account 
from  some  valuable  books;  and,  he  added,  "For  my 
own  country  I  should  venture  to  write  outlines."  The 
scheme  was  not  carried  into  execution.  No  volume 
for  the  Middle  Ages  appeared,  but  late  in  1828  came 
in  two  volumes  a  translation  of  Heeren's  "Staaten 
system"  with  the  title  "History  of  the  Political  System 

1  Mrs.  Susan  I.  Lesley,  "  Recollections  of  My  Mother,"  277. 


154  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

of  Europe,  and  its  Colonies,  from  the  Discovery  of 
America  to  the  Independence  of  the  American  Conti 
nent."  This  title  is  misleading,  since  the  book  took 
the  story  of  European  history  down  to  1821,  more  than 
half  of  the  second  volume  being  given  up  to  events  later 
than  1783.  Since  Heeren  himself  had  no  such  title,  it 
is  hard  to  doubt  that  Bancroft  thus  early  in  his  career 
warped  the  fact  to  make  the  book  attractive  to  Ameri 
can  readers.  The  last  volume,  relating  to  American 
history,  was  not  written  as  such ;  but  it  may  well  be 
that  the  intention  to  write  it  was  the  beginning  of  the 
History  of  the  United  States. 

Deferring  for  a  time  a  consideration  of  this  great 
work  let  us  glance  at  Bancroft's  relations  with  the 
North  American  Review  during  his  residence  in  North 
ampton.  On  this  phase  of  his  life  we  have  much  infor 
mation  in  his  letters  to  Sparks,  and  nothing  could 
better  show  us  what  kind  of  man  he  was  than  to  read 
liberally  from  them.  It  was  in  1823  that  Jared  Sparks 
became  editor  of  the  Review.  While  he  was  preparing 
his  first  issue  Bancroft  offered  to  write  for  him  a  review 
of  Edward  Everett's  translation  of  Buttmann's  Greek 
grammar  and  Jacobs's  Greek  reader.  The  offer  was  ac 
cepted  and  the  author  was  informed  that  he  might 
make  it  as  learned  as  he  pleased ;  and  he  was  invited 
to  write  other  articles  in  the  future.  He  complied 
gladly,  although  not  all  that  he  wrote  was  accepted 
by  the  editor.  Sparks  wrote  February  1,  1824,  as 
follows : 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  155 

"Some  of  the  old  school  here  have  expressed  to  me  their  appre 
hensions  since  your  last  article,  that  the  North  American  is  becom 
ing  too  partial  to  the  Germans,  at  the  expense  of  our  worthy 
brethren  the  English.  One  gentleman  made  bold  to  say  to  me, 
that  the  English  had  written  as  good  Greek  grammars  as  anybody, 
and  that  they  ought  at  least  to  have  a  passing  compliment.  I  told 
him  I  would  give  you  the  hint.  With  this  view  I  return  you  the 
manuscript,  hoping  that  if  you  can  think  of  anything  to  say  in 
praise  of  English  Grecian  elementary  books,  you  will  give  them  the 
passing  meed  of  a  paragraph  or  two."  1 

A  week  later  Bancroft  wrote :  "I  have  been  cheating 
myself  of  my  cares  by  making  little  translations  from 
Goethe.  Perhaps  I  had  better  correct  and  improve 
the  article  on  classic  learning,  or  perhaps  in  lieu  of  it 
get  something  ready  for  the  ladies.  Then  in  May  you 
could  chuse  between  an  argument  about  Greek  and  a 
lighter  article."  2  An  article  on  German  poetry  was 
engaged  for  the  October  number,  1824. 

Sparks 's  attitude  towards  his  reviewers  again  comes 
out  in  a  letter  of  March  31,  1824.  Speaking  of  a  review 
requested  on  a  book  by  an  indifferent  Baltimore  writer 
he  said : 

"You  will  find  a  very  ambitious,  and  unformed  style  occa 
sionally;  and  the  general  getting  up  of  the  book  indicates  an 
unpractised  hand ;  but  there  is  much  historical  knowledge  and  some 
good  thoughts,  and  I  should  like  to  have  the  author  dealt  gently 
with,  although  not  extravagantly  praised.  I  think  you  can  let 
some  parts  of  the  book  speak  well  for  themselves ;  you  can  make  a 
sort  of  analysis  of  things  and  throw  in  such  reflections  as  occur."  3 

1  Bancroft  MSS,  Mass.  Histl.  Soc. 

2  Bancroft  to  Sparks,  Feb.  9,  1824.     Sparks  MSS,  Harvard  Library. 

3  Bancroft  MSS. 


156  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

These  last  two  Sparks  citations,  together  with  the 
difference  of  opinion  arising  between  the  editor  and 
Bancroft  in  regard  to  the  review  of  John  Pickering's 
lexicon,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,1 
show  what  kind  of  liberties  Sparks  took  with  a  con 
tributor.  They  provoked  sharp  protest  at  times, 
though  Bancroft's  anger  was  soon  appeased.  He  was 
a  man  without  malice,  and  was  apt  to  feel  great  pain 
while  he  protested  for  his  rights. 

In  July,  1824,  he  sent  the  editor  a  carefully  prepared 
article  on  Goethe,  asking  especially  that  no  changes  be 
made  in  it  without  consultation  before  publication. 
Nevertheless,  the  piece  appeared  with  many  changes 
by  the  editor.  Bancroft  was  genuinely  grieved.  He 
wrote : 

"In  writing  for  the  N.  A.  R.  I  conceived  myself  in  the  pleasantest 
situation,  laboring  in  a  manner  to  oblige  and  serve  a  friend,  quite 
as  much  as  myself,  and  at  the  same  time  doing  my  little  part 
towards  disseminating  a  love  of  letters.  To  successful  exertion  of 
one's  mind  a  consciousness  of  independence  is  necessary.  As  a 
friend  of  yours,  I  might  desire  at  all  times  to  perform  any  literary 
labor,  which  my  habits  and  pursuits  might  have  fitted  me  for. 
Whenever  I  express  my  own  feelings  and  the  results  of  my  own 
thoughts,  there  must  be  no  mind  at  work  but  my  own.  .  .  . 

"If  I  mistake  not  the  character  of  the  American  public,  there  is 
no  need  of  keeping  back  any  truth  from  it.  The  public  is  willing 
to  be  shocked.  Ask  yourself,  if  a  thing  appears  good  to  your  own 
mind;  and  doubt  not,  the  objections  which  may  arise  from  the 
fear  that  this  or  the  other  will  be  offended,  will  prove  groundless. 

I  have  sometimes  thought  of  relinquishing  the  career  of  letters. 
I  could  be  very  happy  and  very  useful,  if  I  would  do  it.  I  mean 

1  See  above,  pages  68-71. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  157 

relinquish  toiling  for  others.  The  perception  of  excellence  in  others, 
the  love  of  communing  with  high  minds  Providence  in  its  mercy 
has  conceded  me  —  a  compensation  for  a  thousand  woes,  and  my 
most  valuable  possession." l 

Sparks  replied  with  brusque  complacency,  disparag 
ing  Bancroft's  complaint.  The  changes,  he  said,  were 
trifling.  "Allow  no  good  was  done:  what  was  the 
mighty  harm  ?  It  was  not  a  thing  to  worry  about,  and 
more  especially  after  a  thing  was  done,  that  could  not 
be  undone;"  and  with  that  he  ventured  to  suggest  an 
article  on  physical  education,  enlarging  on  its  oppor 
tunities  and  explaining  how  it  might  be  done.  Ban 
croft  was  not  quite  so  easily  appeased  as  Sparks 
thought.  He  replied : 

"The  best  is,  to  forget  unpleasant  things.  Only  it  is  also  best 
for  friends  to  understand  each  other.  I  know  not  how  you  can 
call  the  changes  you  made  in  the  unfortunate  article  so  trifling. 
For  me  they  certainly  were  not  trifling ;  for  while  I  had  been  expect 
ing  to  derive  much  pleasure  from  the  appearance  of  it,  I  have  felt 
only  chagrin.  And  I  cannot  persuade  myself,  my  disappointment 
is  not  well  founded.  Do  you  not  know,  you  changed  one  assertion 
from  a  negative  to  a  positive  one,  thereby  saying  something,  which 
I  do  not  believe,  &  which  makes  the  words  at  least  unmeaning  ? 
.  .  .  You  altered,  what  you  would  not  have  altered,  had  you 
understood,  why  and  in  what  spirit  it  was  written.  And  the  changes 
in  two  cases  out  of  three,  though  few,  materially  affected  both  the 
meaning  and  the  style  of  the  most  labored  parts.  I  say  labored 
parts,  and  I  am  free  to  add,  labored  with  the  most  success,  and  the 
most  truth  and  nature.  The  matter  is  of  little  moment,  only  in  so 
far  as  the  whole  article  is  of  little  moment,  and  my  desire  to  be 
esteemed  as  a  writer  a  childish  vanity."  2 

1  Bancroft  to  Sparks,  n.  d.  [about  Nov.  5,  1824].     Sparks  MSS. 

2  November  17,  1824,  Sparks  MSS. 


158  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Bancroft  concluded  this  letter  with  the  assurance 
that  he  would  not  again  trouble  Sparks  with  articles, 
unless  they  were  requested  beforehand.  He  soon 
thought  better  of  it,  or  at  least  thrust  aside  his  resent 
ment.  December  24  he  wrote  enthusiastically  about 
the  article  on  physical  education,  which  he  had  begun. 
The  following  characteristic  touch  may  explain  the 
breaking  away  of  the  clouds:  "It  is  Christmas  Eve, 
and  a  glad  occasion.  The  Roman  is  now  passing  from 
street  to  street,  from  illuminated  church  to  church; 
the  Basilica  of  Santa  Maria  is  filled  with  music  almost 
heavenly;  the  faithful  are  rejoicing.  I  wish  you  all 
joy  suited  to  the  occasion,  and  happiness  always."1 

Relations  thus  continued  pleasant.  When  Sparks 
found  some  things  in  an  article  on  temperaments  that 
he  did  not  like  he  marked  them  out  and  returned  the 
article  for  approval,  first  showing  it  to  some  of  Ban 
croft's  Cambridge  friends.  The  author  rejected  the 
emendations,  and  Sparks  rejected  the  article,  remark 
ing :  "You  seem  not  to  have  very  correct  notions  of 
this  matter  of  'judgment,'  in  regard  to  the  N.  A. 
Review.  You  say  you  'make  it  a  rule  to  rely  on 
your  own  judgment.'  This  is  an  excellent  rule, — 
precisely  the  rule  which  I  adopt  for  myself,  and  which 
I  must  adhere  to  rigidly  if  I  intend  to  have  any  com 
fort  in  my  labors,  or  any  consistency  in  my  Review. 
Now  this  is  not  saying  that  my  judgment  is  better 
than  yours,  or  any  other  person's;  but  whether  good 

1  Dec.  24.  1824.    Sparks  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  159 

or  bad  I  must  decide  by  this  at  least.  It  is  not  the 
merits  of  a  piece  alone  by  which  I  judge,  but  its  adapt- 
ableness  to  the  N.  A.  Review."  He  went  on  to  say 
that  he  rarely  printed  an  article  from  which  something 
was  not  omitted,  but  that  he  never  added  anything 
without  the  consent  of  the  author,  and  that,  in  fact, 
he  had  cancelled  three  sheets  in  an  article  by  Edward 
Everett  in  the  forthcoming  number.  He  dismissed 
the  subject  saying:  "I  beg  whenever  you  send  any 
thing  hereafter,  that  you  will  make  up  your  mind  to 
send  it  on  the  same  terms  that  all  the  other  writers 
do,  and  wish  you  to  understand  distinctly,  that  I  shall 
always  omit  what  I  do  not  like,  as  being  the  invariable 
rule  by  which  I  am  guided  in  all  cases."  l 

This  plain  statement  was  toned  down  by  the  addi 
tion  of  pleasant  personal  sentiments,  and  friendly  rela 
tions  continued.  Bancroft  was  genuinely  attached  to 
Sparks,  who  seems  to  have  warmed  to  him  as  much  as 
to  anyone.  The  former  with  a  characteristic  outburst 
of  affection  wrote  about  this  time:  "You  once  wrote 
me  a  long  letter,  and  never  but  once.  I  live  upon  that ; 
but  wish  you  could  sometimes  add  at  least  a  syllable 
of  Christian  salutation,  or  friendly  information.  You 
are  all  too  laconic."  2  During  the  summer  of  1825 
Sparks  visited  Northampton  and  was  charmed  by  its 
beauty  and  agreeable  society.  Returning  he  carried 
to  Boston  a  "parcel  of  flowers,"  sent  to  a  young  lady 
of  that  city  by  the  schoolmaster  at  Round  Hill.  The 

1  Feb.  17,  1825.     Bancroft  MSS.  2  Jan.  17,  1825.     Sparks  MSS. 


160  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

editor  was  disposed  to  carp  at  his  sentimental  errand, 
but  Bancroft  said  in  regard  to  the  gift :  "I  came  very 
near  receiving  a  reward,  which  to  me  would  have  been 
without  price." 

These  were  years  of  intense  labor  for  Bancroft.  Re 
buffed  as  he  was  by  most  of  those  around  him,  he  clung 
the  harder  to  the  few  Harvard  friends  he  had,  Sparks 
and  Edward  Everett  being  among  them ;  and  mean 
while  he  worked  hard  and  long.  He  realized  deeply  a 
poor  author's  need  of  some  accumulation  of  capital  on 
which  to  base  the  execution  of  further  plans.  "You 
must  not  work  yourself  to  death,"  said  his  friend,  "nor 
be  too  greedy  after  the  treasures  of  this  world.  But 
you  are  doing  great  things,  and  the  fruits  of  your 
labors  are  to  appear  not  in  the  present  time  only,  but 
in  the  future  ages."  1  And  Bancroft  in  reply  exclaimed : 

"'Be  not  too  greedy  after  the  treasures  of  this  world,'  say  you 
in  yours  of  the  8th  February].  And  after  what  else  pray  shall  a 
man  be  greedy  ?  Truth  is  the  object  which  we  profess  to  seek  and 
intelligence  the  power  under  whose  banners  we  rally;  but  in  a 
better  world  there  will  be  no  error  to  be  overcome,  no  books  to  be 
read,  no  doubtful  reasonings  to  follow,  no  reviews  to  be  written, 
no  midnight  lamp  to  be  left  burning,  but  truth  will  shine  clearly  in 
her  own  simple  majesty,  and  there  will  be  an  end  of  all  the  appa 
ratus  of  the  inquirer.  Not  be  greedy  after  the  treasures  of  this 
world !  I  went  to  a  friend's  wedding  last  week.  I  hope  he  is  a 
happier  man  than  he  was.  A  good  wife,  with  beauty  enough  to 
satisfy,  warm  affections  enough  to  cheer,  intelligence  enough  to 
please,  cheerfulness  enough  to  enliven  the  dark  hours  of  this  mortal 
state  —  that  is  not  to  be  coveted,  say  you  ?  Oh  you  are  a  saint, 

1  Sparks  to  Bancroft,  Feb.  6,  1826.     Bancroft  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  161 

and  heavenly  minded;  for  in  heaven  there  is  no  marrying  nor 
giving  in  marriage,  but  men  are  as  the  angels.  Be  not  greedy  for 
the  things  of  this  world.  Filthy  lucre  and  the  rest :  be  they 
abhorred  and  spurned  :  to  be  sure  a  man  may  be  as  it  were  the  only 
son  of  aged  parents,  and  they  be  poor;  and  he  may  have  seen  a 
race  of  elder  brothers  swept  away  from  his  side  by  the  irresistible 
hand  of  fearful  destiny,  and  may  have  all  the  duties  of  son,  brother 
and  man  pressing  upon  him  :  yet  let  him  not  think  of  this  world  but 
fold  his  hands  in  contemplative  indolence,  and  watch  the  courses 
of  the  stars  or  the  breaking  of  day,  and  muse  with  unseen  spirits, 
never  striving  to  have  his  name  respectfully  uttered,  where  things 
are  doing,  and  satisfying  all  the  ties  of  nature  by  a  cold  obedience 
and  barren  affection.  Fie  on  your  morality  ! " 1 

In  this  connection  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  the 
following  sentiment,  for  it  shows  Bancroft  in  his  loneli 
ness  and  in  a  mood  of  stage  heroics  peculiar  to  his 
nature,  in  spite  of  his  many  strong  qualities.  He  wrote 
to  Sparks : 

"I  was  once  dining  at  the  house  of  a  gentleman  of  great  wealth, 
who  had  assembled,  (I  had  reason  to  think  in  part  or  particularly 
to  show  me  a  little  attention)  some  of  the  pleasantest  and  most 
distinguished  persons  of  the  opulent  families  in  Boston.  Miss  M. 
Lyman  was  there,  to  speak  but  of  the  ladies,  Miss  Otis,  now  Mrs. 
Ritchie,  and  another.  The  conversation  was  various.  It  turned 
on  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  men.  I  took  little  part  in  it :  was 
cold  and  reserved.  Presently  some  one  observed  of  men  of  letters 
with  something  of  a  contemptuous  sneer  that  they  were  always 
poor  and  lived  in  garrets.  I  might  have  replied  triumphantly,  that 
in  that  they  pronounced  the  severest  judgment  on  rich  men,  which 
for  the  honor  of  human  nature  I  trusted  was  not  a  just  one.  I 
preferred  not  to  do  so :  I  remained  nearly  silent,  and  least  of  all 
appeared  to  perceive  any  want  of  delicacy  in  those  who  made  the 

1  March  10,  1826.     Sparks  MSS. 


162  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

remark.  All  the  persons  present  were  my  friends.  One  of  them 
proved  it  by  giving  me  his  name  for  $2000  at  a  time  when  my  name 
in  business  was  worth  little  and  when  his  only  security  was  in  my 
character.  But  observe  this :  there  is  an  essential  difference 
between  the  friendship  of  men,  who  are  nearly  on  the  level  in  their 
external  fortunes,  and  the  relation  which  grows  up  between  the 
wealthy  and  those  who  have  no  estates  but  then*  own  time."  1 

Words  like  these  make  us  understand  how  the 
talented  young  man,  conscious  of  his  literary  ability, 
must  have  formed  his  purpose  to  make  authorship 
yield  wealth  as  well  as  distinction.  Text-books  and 
reviews  were  produced  with  great  rapidity,  while  a 
thrifty  disposition  enabled  him  to  save  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  income.  Every  man  who  has  struggled 
through  the  initial  stages  of  authorship  will  have  sym 
pathy  for  Bancroft's  position  and  his  feelings  in  regard 
to  this  matter. 

Moreover,  Bancroft  was  developing  an  independence 
in  thinking  that  was  sure  to  bring  him  into  conflict  with 
Sparks,  a  man  little  inclined  to  tolerate  startling 
things.  He  was  one  of  those  intense  men  who  think 
acutely  and  see  nothing  but  the  ends  of  their  reasoning, 
persons  who  are  always  out  of  step  with  their  fellows, 
and  are  apt  to  die  unblessed,  unless,  like  Bancroft, 
they  have  immense  determination  in  bringing  them 
selves  into  public  recognition.  Such  a  man  was  not 
capable  of  writing  reviews  acceptable  to  Sparks,  and 
the  following  letter  shows  that  Bancroft  had  begun  to 
recognize  it : 

1  Nov.  14,  1825.    Sparks  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  163 

"MY   DEAR   FRIEND, 

"When  a  friend  gives  me  an  opportunity  of  saying  yes,  it  is  very 
unpleasant  not  to  do  so.  You  would  not  like  my  views  about 
Judge  Story's  address.  I  do  not  think  so  highly  of  it,  as  many 
express  themselves.  The  generous  enthusiasm  for  letters  is  honor 
able  to  him;  but  there  is  no  point,  no  consistent  and  continuous 
tram  of  thoughts.  Besides,  just  at  this  moment  the  whole  care  of 
organizing  the  school  for  the  new  session  comes  upon  me,  and  I 
see  no  hope  of  a  day's  leisure  before  thanksgiving.  Ready  to 
promise  and  faithful  to  perform :  this  was  the  character  you  gave 
me  of  old.  You  must  not  consider  me  as  forfeiting  it  by  my  declining 
now.  Do  you  not  remember  too  how  angry  Somerville  was  with 
you  and  me?  And  do  you  know,  that  while  you  reproached  me 
for  praising  Popkin  so  much,  Popkin  was  vexed  at  being  spoken 

of  so  little?  «T  ,, , 

In  great  haste,  very  truly  yours. 

To  refuse  to  praise  Judge  Story  was  an  alarming 
symptom,  and  Sparks  might  have  known  that  he  was 
dealing  with  a  man  whose  course  could  not  be  predicted 
from  the  standpoint  of  prevailing  Boston  ideals.  He 
should  have  been  warned,  but  blindly  persisted,  the 
next  offer  he  made  being  the  review  of  a  Greek  lexicon 
by  John  Pickering,2  son  of  Timothy  Pickering,  and 
Nestor  of  all  that  was  left  of  the  prim  school  of  New 
England  federalism.  Pickering  was  a  judge,  and  his 
pursuit  of  Greek  was  of  an  amateurish  nature.  Before 
the  young  gentleman  who  worshiped  at  the  shrine 
of  the  latest  German  criticism  he  had  the  slightest 
chance  in  the  world.  Yet  the  powerful  judge  was 
thrown  to  the  young  lion,  not  without  many  soothing 

1  Bancroft  to  Sparks,  October  [24],  1826.     Sparks  MSS. 

2  On  this  incident  see  above,  pages  68-71. 


164  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

requests  that  the  lion  would  be  gentle  for  once  in  his 
life.  And  he  was  gentle,  after  the  manner  of  the  gentle 
ness  of  lions.  He  softened  his  roar,  but  he  could  not 
make  it  the  song  of  a  lark.  Sparks  cut  out  all  that 
was  properly  criticism,  wrote  some  pages  to  replace 
the  deleted  ideas,  and  published  an  article  that  pros 
trated  Bancroft  with  rage  and  chagrin.  Pickering  him 
self  must  have  been  disappointed;  for  his  chief  con 
nection  with  the  review  was  that  the  title  of  his  work 
stood  at  the  head.  The  only  respectable  part  in  it 
was  a  summary  of  the  development  of  lexicons,  by 
Bancroft,  but  it  appeared  so  poorly  supported  by  the 
rest  of  the  matter  that  it  was  out  of  place.  Bancroft's 
fierce  protest  could  secure  no  redress,  and  the  incident 
made  a  painful  impression  on  him  for  the  time  being. 
But  it  soon  passed,  and  although  he  continued  on 
friendly  terms  with  Sparks,  he  wrote  few  reviews  for 
him  in  the  future. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Bancroft  turned  his  at 
tention  from  classical  subjects  and  gave  it  to  matters 
concerning  the  life  around  him.  His  letters  give  us 
little  explanation  for  the  change.  Probably  he  was 
influenced  by  Sparks's  rise  in  popular  esteem  through 
taking  up  the  history  of  his  country.  He  was  bent  on 
having  a  literary  career,  and  here  before  his  eyes  was 
the  example  of  a  success  that  he  could  never  promise 
himself  as  a  classicist.  The  idea  was  also  connected 
with  his  desire  to  do  good.  Referring  to  an  article  on 
Baltimore  by  Sparks  he  said  that  he  thought  it  "worth 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  165 

a  dozen  doses  of  sentimental  criticism,  and  that  similar 
articles  on  various  sections  of  the  country  would  be  of 
great  and  general  value."  At  this  time  he  was  think 
ing  of  writing  an  article  on  the  growth  of  the  towns 
and  cities  of  the  Connecticut  Valley,  and  proposed  to 
make  a  journey  to  them  gathering  materials. 

Bancroft's  acquaintance  with  Sparks  was  a  fortunate 
influence  in  his  life.  It  gave  him  a  medium  of  publica 
tion  and  the  editor's  constant  call  for  articles  stimulated 
the  writing  habit.  Sparks's  efforts  to  hold  back  the 
spirit  of  the  young  man  were  not  entirely  a  failure. 
While  they  hardened  the  author's  sense  of  independ 
ence,  they  caused  him  to  look  to  his  gait  and  to  gallop 
with  care.  Bancroft  had  his  faults,  and  they  will  be 
treated  in  their  place,  but  in  contending  with  Sparks 
he  was  generally  right.  He  was  developing  a  spirit  of 
self-direction  destined  to  remove  him  far  from  the 
group  in  which  he  had  spent  his  earliest  years;  but 
it  was  the  necessary  mark  of  individuality.  As  Mrs. 
Lyman  well  said,  "Notwithstanding  his  cracked  voice 
and  shaking  head,  there  are  few  who  in  the  vigor  of 
youth  can  write  as  well."  It  was  chiefly  his  faculty  of 
writing  well  that  made  his  history  the  glory  of  his 
countrymen  in  his  own  age. 

3.     A  Literary  Politician 

In  October,  1829,  Bancroft  wrote:  "I  should  be 
grateful  could  I  obtain  that  personal  leisure,  which 
might  enable  me  to  enter  the  career  of  letters  with 


166  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

some  reasonable  expectation  of  doing  myself  justice. 
But  at  present  I  am  doomed  to  bear  with  the  petulance, 
restrain  the  frivolity,  mend  the  tempers,  and  improve 
the  minds  of  children."  x  Those  who,  like  Dr.  Ellis, 
censure  Bancroft  for  being  a  poor  teacher,  should  re 
member  that  he  himself  realized  that  he  was  not  well 
fitted  for  the  work  of  the  pedagogue,  and  that  he  gave 
it  up  as  soon  as  he  could.  Good  teachers  usually  make 
poor  writers.  In  the  one  case  success  comes  from 
the  reiterated  and  detailed  statement  of  fact,  in  the 
other  from  clear  and  lively  statement  of  ideas.  Ban 
croft's  mind  was  suited  to  the  latter  process,  and  it 
would  have  been  a  sin  against  nature  to  force  him  to 
give  his  Me  to  the  former.  It  was  his  good  fortune 
that  his  thrift  and  an  advantageous  marriage  enabled 
him  to  throw  himself  after  1831  into  the  field  of  author 
ship.  But  before  we  follow  him  into  that  phase  of  his 
career,  let  us  see  how  it  was  that  he  became  a  leading 
democratic  politician. 

Our  first  glimpse  of  Bancroft's  political  opinion 
comes  as  early  as  1823,  the  year  after  his  return  from 
abroad.  Writing  to  President  Kirkland  he  said:  "I 
love  to  observe  the  bustle  of  the  world,  but  I  detest 
mixing  in  it.  I  like  to  watch  the  shouts  of  the  multi 
tude,  but  had  rather  not  scream  with  them."  2  Such 
words  would  seem  to  indicate  that  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  he  was  no  democrat.  A  similar  impression  is 

1  Bancroft  to  Sparks,  Oct.  4,  1829.     Sparks  MSS. 

2  Bancroft  to  President  Kirkland,  May  21,  1823.     Bancroft  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  167 

gathered  from  the  following  reference  in  the  same  year 
to  the  state  of  parties  in  Massachusetts:  "Of  the 
strange  doings  at  our  elections  you  must  have  heard. 
A  democratic  Governor  and  a  democratic  Senate,  and 
now  a  prospect  of  a  democratic  House.  Our  class-mate 
Gushing  has  trimmed  and  wrote  against  Mr.  Otis.  So 
he  is  now  in  high  favor  with  'the  Patriot,9  as  the  'im 
partial  writer  in  the  Newburyport  Herald.99'1  That 
Bancroft,  destined  to  be  regarded  in  Massachusetts  as  a 
renegade  equally  with  Caleb  Gushing,  should  now  have 
joined  in  the  storm  of  reproaches  that  greeted  that  act 
of  defection  has  in  it  something  of  the  irony  of  fate. 

The  fourth  of  July,  1826,  was  celebrated  generally 
as  the  fiftieth  birthday  of  the  nation,  and  many  orations 
were  spoken  and  published  as  a  result.  One  of  the 
best  was  made  by  George  Bancroft  at  Northampton. 
It  was  a  review  of  the  progress  of  republican  institu 
tions  in  the  world,  particular  attention  being  given  to 
the  proposition  that  most  that  had  been  accomplished 
was  the  result  of  our  own  initiation.  The  orator  sup 
ported  strongly  the  Jeffersonian  theory  of  popular  gov 
ernment,  using  words  that  must  have  made  to  wince 
the  descendants  of  Caleb  Strong  and  the  relatives  of 
Theodore  Dwight,  numerous  in  the  town.  What 
could  be  more  unpleasant  to  them  than  words  like 
the  following : 

Bancroft  to  S.  A.  Eliot,  May  10,  1823.  Bancroft  MSS.  Harrison 
Gray  Otis  was  defeated  for  governor  in  1823  by  the  first  republican  governor 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war  of  1812.  Caleb  Gushing  belonged  to  the 
Harvard  class  of  1817. 


168  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

"Government  is  based  upon  population,  not  upon  property.  If 
they  who  possess  the  wealth  possessed  the  power  also,  they  would 
legislate  in  such  a  way  as  to  preserve  that  wealth  and  power ;  and 
this  would  tend  to  an  aristocracy.  We  hold  it  best,  that  the  laws 
should  favor  the  diffusion  of  property  and  its  easy  acquisition,  not 
the  concentration  of  it  in  the  hands  of  a  few  to  the  impoverishment 
of  the  many.  We  give  the  power  to  the  many,  in  the  hope  and  to 
the  end,  that  they  may  use  it  for  their  own  benefit ;  that  they  may 
always  so  legislate,  as  to  open  the  fairest  career  to  industry,  and 
promote  an  equality  founded  on  the  safe  and  equitable  influence  of 
the  laws.  We  do  not  fear,  we  rather  invite  the  operation  of  the 
common  motives,  which  influence  humanity."  1 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  words  were 
sincere.  They  represented  the  creed  of  a  man  who 
had  as  yet  formed  no  other  party  alignment  than  that 
to  which  he  was  born.  He  was  a  supporter  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  in  1828.  "The  election  is  lost,"  he 
wrote  to  Edward  Everett  in  November;  "but  Adams 
is  not  more  defeated  than  Calhoun.  I  hope  New  Eng 
land  may  rise  with  [the]  new  party,  that  will  be  formed. 
If  I  can  in  any  wise  serve  you  this  winter,  don't  omit 
to  allow  me." 2  From  which  it  seems  that  he  was 
beginning  to  drag  the  anchor  of  his  party  allegiance. 

Jared  Sparks  sold  the  North  American  Review  to  Alex 
ander  H.  Everett,  brother  of  Edward,  in  1830.  In 
passing  over  the  property  to  the  new  editor  he  sug 
gested  Bancroft  as  a  reliable  and  useful  contributor. 
Accordingly,  Everett  asked  Bancroft  to  review  the 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  on  the 

1  Bancroft,  "An  Oration,"  etc.,  p.  20. 

2  Nov.  18,  1828.    Bancroft  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  169 

condition  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Jack 
son's  message  of  the  preceding  December  had  said 
that  it  was  not  too  soon  to  begin  to  consider  the  re- 
charter  of  the  bank,  and  had  cast  doubts  on  the  wisdom 
of  continuing  the  institution  beyond  its  charter  limits, 
1837.  Clay  and  all  who  supported  him,  including 
Calhoun's  friend  McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina,  chair 
man  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  took  the 
opposite  side,  investigated  the  condition  of  the  bank, 
and  issued  the  report  of  April,  1830,  completely  ex 
onerating  the  bank  from  the  imputations  of  the  presi 
dent.  This  report  became  a  rallying  cry  for  all  who 
opposed  the  administration ;  and  if  any  journal  in  the 
country  could  be  expected  to  sympathize  with  its  sen 
timents,  it  was  the  North  American  Review,  whose 
editor  was  the  brother  of  the  distinguished  representa 
tive  from  the  Middlesex  district.  To  Bancroft,  intent 
upon  writing  what  he  thought,  and  jealous  of  his  inde 
pendence,  the  political  leaning  of  the  Review  was  as 
nothing. 

Up  to  this  time  the  coming  historian  had,  probably, 
never  taken  stock  of  his  principles.  We  have  seen  that 
in  1826  he  was  an  out  and  out  republican  in  theory, 
while  he  held  openly  with  the  friends  of  John  Quincy 
Adams.  His  review  of  the  defense  of  the  bank  led  him 
to  state  what  he  believed  about  a  crucial  subject.  He 
began  by  observing  that  Jackson  was  not  mistaken  in 
saying  that  it  was  a  proper  time  to  take  up  recharter. 
"This  opulent  institution,"  he  continued,  "enjoys an 


170  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

exclusive  privilege;  it  possesses  a  capital  so  immense 
as  to  have  an  almost  controlling  influence  on  the  money 
market  of  the  country."  But  the  conduct  of  the  bank 
had  been  such  as  to  entitle  it  to  the  fairest  hearing. 
Its  immense  power  had  been  used  mildly.  This  was 
not  to  say  that  the  bank  gave  services  that  no  other 
institution  could  give.  Other  banks  were  as  well  con 
ducted  and  could,  if  called  upon,  perform  the  services 
that  the  existing  bank  yielded  to  the  public.  "In 
sober  truth,"  said  he,  "there  is  very  little  reason  to 
doubt,  that  the  sun  would  still  rise  and  set,  and  the 
day  be  spent  in  its  usual  business,  and  merchandise  be 
bought  and  sold,  and  bills  of  exchange  be  negotiated, 
even  without  a  machine  so  vast  and  so  very  useful  as 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States."  As  for  the  report  it 
self,  he  pronounced  it  an  ex-parte  statement, — assuredly 
the  truth,  —  and  charged  that  it  contained  much  exag 
geration. 

What  Jared  Sparks  would  have  done  with  an  article 
so  much  out  of  sympathy  with  what  he  thought  the 
Review  should  teach,  it  is  hard  to  say.  Everett  did 
not  omit  some  parts  and  change  others,  as  his  pre 
decessor  did  with  the  ill-fated  review  of  Pickering's 
lexicon ;  but  he  could  not  let  the  article  stand  for  the 
policy  of  the  magazine.  He  published  the  article  but 
added  to  it  this  astonishing  statement:  "The  expe 
diency  of  renewing  the  charter  of  the  present  National 
Bank  has  not  been  brought  into  [this]  discussion.  On 
this  question  our  opinion  is  decidedly  in  the  affirma- 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  171 

tive;  and  we  propose  in  a  future  paper  to  assign  the 
reasons  which  lead  us  to  that  conclusion."  In  the 
following  number  there  was,  indeed,  another  article  on 
the  bank,  but  it  was  not  written  by  Bancroft.  It  was 
a  strong  defense  of  the  institution,  and  to  it  was  ap 
pended  a  footnote  stating  that  it  was  not  from  the 
author  of  the  former  article,  who  would  probably  con 
tinue  his  discussion  in  the  October  number.  The  note 
closed  with  the  following  assertion:  "There  is  some 
divergence  between  the  views  of  our  two  correspon 
dents  on  particular  points ;  but  their  general  objects, 
those  of  showing  the  utility  of  the  Bank,  and  the 
expediency  of  continuing  it,  are  substantially  the 


same." 


While  Bancroft  had  not  declared  himself  openly 
against  recharter,  all  his  arguments  ran  against  the 
bank.  To  say,  therefore,  that  he  thought  it  expedi 
ent  to  continue  the  bank  was  false,  and  he  took  it 
as  a  wrong.  Wishing  to  exonerate  himself  he  wrote 
a  second  article  in  which  his  opinions  were  clearly 
stated,  but  the  North  American  would  not  publish 
it.  He  was  able,  however,  to  force  the  editor  to 
sign  a  statement  that  the  last  sentence  in  the 
article  published  was  not  written  by  the  author  of 
that  article. 

The  announcement  that  he  was  opposed  to  the  bank 
was  a  turning  point  in  Bancroft's  career.  The  leading 
class  of  New  Englanders  were  fervid  supporters  of  the 
bank.  They  were  long  accustomed  to  view  govern- 


172  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

ment  by  the  lower  classes  as  a  supreme  calamity ;  and 
they  were  good  haters.  That  a  man  born  in  an  upper 
rank,  educated,  and  accustomed  to  think  deeply  about 
public  matters  should  become  the  champion  of  level 
ing  ideas  was  nothing  less  than  shocking.  They  con 
cluded  that  Bancroft  had  acted  from  selfish  motives, 
and  they  applied  to  him  the  term  "trimmer,"  which 
in  1823  he  had  applied  to  Caleb  Gushing.  The  Jack 
son  men,  however,  hailed  Bancroft's  article  with  de 
light.  Here  was  a  man  of  the  educated  class  raising 
his  voice  in  their  behalf,  and  they  made  him  a  political 
asset.  He  was  too  astute  to  refuse,  and  he  followed 
the  lead  they  opened  to  him  until  at  last  he  reached 
the  highest  places  in  the  party.  There  is  no  reason  to 
believe  that  he  planned  his  article  on  the  bank  with  a 
view  to  such  a  course. 

In  1831,  five  months  after  his  bank  views  were  pub 
lished,  he  was  in  Washington,  where  he  seems  to  have 
had  an  eye  to  political  advantages.  "I  found  by  dili 
gent  inquiry  at  the  sources,"  he  wrote  to  his  wife, 
"that  my  course,  as  it  respects  the  U.  S.  Bank, 
was  well  approved  of."  Later  in  the  year  he  visited 
Cleveland  on  a  project  to  establish  a  bank  there  in 
which  his  father-in-law  was  interested.  When  rumor 
said  that  his  article  had  been  connected  with  this 
project  he  denied  it  very  positively.  A  state  bank  at 
Cleveland  would  derive  benefit  from  the  destruction 
of  the  bank  of  the  United  States.  Late  in  1831  he  was 
in  Washington  trying  to  forward  the  same  scheme, 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  173 

continuing  there  well  into  1832.  "I  almost  abandon 
the  pursuit,"  he  said;  "yet  $8000  are  worth  a  little 
patience  and  a  sturdy  effort."  1  How  the  affair  was  to 
yield  him  so  large  a  sum  is  not  explained,  neither  is  it 
clear  that  he  succeeded  in  his  scheme.  He  complained 
that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  was  ill  and  could 
not  sign  the  papers  on  which  the  success  of  the  scheme 
depended. 

Back  in  Northampton,  he  settled  down  to  three 
years  of  literary  labor.  The  excitement  raised  by  the 
bank  article  passed  with  the  comment  of  a  few  of  the 
more  radical  friends  of  recharter.  His  personal  friends 
accepted  the  situation,  and  he  had  reason  to  believe 
that  he  had  not  lost  their  esteem.  It  was,  meanwhile, 
an  evident  satisfaction  to  see  the  steady  progress  of 
Jackson's  attack  on  the  bank. 

In  the  autumn  of  1834,  Bancroft  was  suddenly  called 
into  the  front  of  the  political  field.  Isaac  C.  Bates, 
a  whig,  with  an  eye  on  the  United  States  senate,  an 
nounced  that  he  would  not  be  a  candidate  for  re-election 
to  congress,  and  a  card  in  the  Northampton  Gazette 
suggested  Bancroft  as  a  candidate  to  succeed  him. 
Immediately  a  number  of  gentlemen  sent  him  a  letter 
requesting  a  statement  of  his  opinions  on  the  issues  of 
the  day.  Bancroft's  reply  was  dignified  and  repub 
lican  in  tone.  It  was  not  as  extreme  as  the  address  of 
1826.  The  editor  of  the  Gazette  said  it  would  perhaps 
have  the  opposition  of  extreme  men  in  both  parties ; 

1  Howe,  "  Life  of  Bancroft,"  I.  197. 


174  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

and  some  of  the  most  liberal  whig  editors  spoke  ap 
provingly  of  its  spirit,  while  all  expressed  admiration 
for  the  style  in  which  it  was  written.1 

At  that  time  the  whig  party  was  very  powerful  in 
Massachusetts,  and  its  opponents,  Jackson  men  and 
anti-masons,  were  organized  as  a  working-men's  party. 
It  was  members  of  this  party  who  sought  to  have  Ban 
croft  nominated  for  congress.  The  nominating  con 
vention  met  at  West  Springfield  and  Bancroft  was  a 
promising  candidate  for  its  favor,  but  at  the  last 
moment  he  withdrew  in  favor  of  Oliver  Warner,  who 
was  nominated  and  defeated  at  the  polls  by  a  whig.2 
Bancroft's  friends  then  brought  him  out  as  one  of 
Northampton's  candidates  on  the  working-men's  ticket 
for  the  lower  house  of  the  general  court,  and  in  this 
contest  he  was  defeated.  His  personal  views  on  the 
election  are  interesting.  He  wrote  thus  to  Edward 
Everett,  whom  he  wished  to  see  governor  : 

"The  secret  spring  of  the  political  movement  in  this  quarter 
grew  out  of  I.  C.  Bates'  aspirations  after  a  seat  in  the  United 
States  Senate.  A  powerful  combination  was  entered  into  with  the 
Springfield  junto;  the  aid  of  the  clergy  was  called  in;  sermons 
were  preached;  and  the  community  was  made  to  believe,  that 
there  was  danger  the  bible  would  be  taken  out  of  their  hands. 
Democracy  was  said  to  be  a  branch  of  atheism.  We  held  our  own 
in  this  town  notwithstanding;  but  the  Sunday  night  previous  to 
election  an  immense  crowd  was  gathered  in  the  town  hall;  Mr. 
Bates,  Lewis  Strong,  Forbes,  a  high  mason,  and  Dewey,  all 
assembled,  and  never  was  such  an  appeal  to  the  stormy  passions. 

1  Northampton  Gazette,  Sept.  24,  and  Oct.  8,  22,  1834. 

2  A  statement  by  Andrew  Parsons,  n.  d.,  in  Bancroft  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  175 

The  charges  against  their  opponents  were  Jacksonism,  infidelity 
and  atheism.  A  perfect  fever  was  got  up.  The  public  did  not 
perceive  that  this  was  merely  a  scheme  to  help  Bates  forward.  I 
saw  through  it,  and  on  Monday  morning  infused  what  courage  I 
could  into  the  people.  It  was  a  great  triumph,  that  under  such 
circumstances  we  could  poll  for  an  independent  ticket  167  votes. 
The  like  was  never  known  here  before.  Had  Bates  been  quiet,  we 
should  have  carried  the  town  by  a  decisive  majority.  The  churchy 
orthodoxy  was  made  to  bear  upon  us.  ...  It  will  be  some  years 
before  a  popular  party  can  become  powerful  in  this  state.  But  it 
will  rise,  and  within  six  years  it  will  culminate.  Webster  will  run 
for  Presidency,  and  will  get  at  most  24  votes.  Van  Buren  will 
come  in ;  and  Massachusetts  will  come  over  to  his  support.  Scorn 
your  enemies :  spurn  them  from  you.  Mr.  Webster,  retiring  to 
private  life,  will  leave  you  the  leading  name  in  the  East."  l 

Before  passing  adverse  judgment  on  Bancroft's 
course  in  this  situation,  let  us  ask  ourselves  what  we 
should  have  done  face  to  face  with  a  powerful  party 
which  could  use  at  will  the  influence  of  social  and  re 
ligious  conservatism  to  break  those  who  were  rash 
enough  to  oppose  it.  For  the  average  New  Englander, 
born  to  trust  the  clergy  and  to  distrust  democrats, 
political  orthodoxy  was  no  great  error.  But  an  edu 
cated  and  liberal  minded  man  today  would  be  ashamed 
to  yield  to  such  influences.  Bancroft  was  ahead  of  his 
time,  and  he  took  such  a  stand  as  many  an  educated 
man  of  our  own  day  and  in  the  same  situation  would 
consider  the  only  thing  to  do.  Alluding  to  the  storm 
that  burst  over  him  when  his  letter  to  the  men  of 
Northampton  appeared,  he  said  : 

1  Bancroft  to  Edward  Everett,  Nov.  17,  1834.    Bancroft  MSS. 


176  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

"With  respect  to  my  letter,  it  was  written  deliberately.  I 
abide  by  it.  I  have  no  wish  to  retract  a  word  of  it,  nor  to  change 
the  time  when  it  was  published.  I  had  no  idea,  how  indifferent 
I  could  be  to  unmerited  censure;  it  does  not  in  the  least  disturb 
my  peace  :  I  never  enjoyed  greater  tranquility.  My  letter  was  an 
attack  upon  all  disorganizes  and  infidels.  I  am  radically  a  repub 
lican  in  feeling  and  in  principles."  1 

Perhaps  George  Ticknor's  advice  brought  comfort 
also.  Said  he :  "You  are  not  made  by  your  talents  or 
your  affectations,  by  your  temperament  or  your  pur 
suits,  to  be  either  the  leader  or  the  tool  of  demagogues."2 
Ticknor  was  an  ardent  whig :  he  looked  on  the  defec 
tion  of  his  old  friend  with  great  sadness.  At  this  time 
the  first  volume  of  the  "  History  "  had  been  published 
and  well  received.  Its  author  had  become  a  national 
figure,  and  his  political  course  caused  much  comment. 

The  attacks  of  whigs  attracted  the  notice  of  the 
democrats.  Invitations  to  address  the  faithful  came  in, 
and  prominent  democrats  began  to  take  notice  of  him. 
Van  Buren  wrote,  the  occasion  being  a  reply  to  Ban 
croft's  offer  of  a  copy  of  his  first  volume :  "I  have,  as 
you  suppose,  observed  the  attacks  which  have  been 
made  upon  you  by  the  newspapers.  This  has  ever 
been  and  will  ever  be  the  fate  of  every  sincere  friend 
of  liberal  principles."  Bancroft  visited  Albany,  where 
he  met  many  men  of  note,  among  them  William  L. 
Marcy,  with  whom  he  exchanged  letters  after  his  re 
turn.  He  was  a  Van  Buren  man  in  1836,  and  in  1837 

1  Bancroft  to  Edward  Everett,  Dec.  29,  1834.     Bancroft  MSS. 

2  In  the  Bancroft  MSS  without  date. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  177 

he  received  as  the  reward  of  his  faithfulness  the  col- 
lectorship  of  the  port  of  Boston,  a  position  which  he 
filled  very  acceptably  until  dismissed  on  the  acces 
sion  of  the  whigs  in  1841.  By  this  time  he  was  fully 
launched  as  a  statesman.  In  1834,  he  said:  "I  must 
insist  on  my  old  theory  :  the  man  of  letters  cannot  have 
brilliant  success  in  politics  except  on  the  popular  side."  1 
These  words  were  spoken  to  induce  Everett  to  come 
over  to  democracy ;  but  they  probably  stated  his  own 
theory  of  conduct.  Let  us  now  consider  Bancroft's 
progress  into  the  sure  position  of  an  accepted  man  of 
letters. 

4.   Early  Career  as  a  Historian 

Six  months  after  he  gave  up  the  schoolroom  Ban 
croft  said:  "It  was  an  unwise  thing  in  me  to  have 
made  myself  a  schoolmaster :  that  was  a  kind  of  oc 
cupation  to  which  I  was  not  peculiarly  adapted,  and 
in  which  many  of  inferior  abilities  and  attainments 
could  have  succeeded  as  well.  I  have  felt  rejoiced  at 
being  entirely  emancipated  from  this  condition."  2  He 
had  at  last  found  himself. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  he  threw  his  classics  out  of 
the  same  window  that  served  for  the  exit  of  his  school 
master's  wand.  Both  were  supplanted  by  history. 
"I  remember  well,"  he  wrote  to  Everett  in  1835,  allud 
ing  to  their  early  relations,  "advising  with  you  on 

1  Bancroft  to  E.  Everett,  July  11,  1834.     Bancroft  MSS. 

2  Howe,  "Life  and  Letters  of  George  Bancroft,"  I,  201. 


178  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

devoting  myself  to  the  pursuit  of  history,  and  for  six 
teen  years  my  main  purpose  in  life  has  been  un 
changed."  We  should  ever  make  some  allowance  for 
Bancroft's  imagination.  He  may  have  thought  in  1818 
of  becoming  a  historian,  and  the  idea  was  probably 
remembered;  but  the  magazine  articles  written  on 
many  subjects  from  1823  to  1830  show  that  he  was 
still  without  a  dominating  theme  of  thought.  History 
begins  to  assume  a  leading  position  in  his  plans  in 
1828,  when,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  thinking  of  pub 
lishing,  in  connection  with  Heeren's  two  works,  a 
course  of  general  history,1  a  history  of  the  United 
States  making  the  fourth  volume  in  the  series.  Even 
this  plan  seems  to  have  been  dropped  during  at  least 
four  years.  There  is  nothing  to  connect  it  with  the 
appearance  in  1834  of  the  first  volume  of  his  great 
work,  except  identity  of  subject. 

Bancroft  is  said  to  have  derived  his  historical  method 
from  Heeren,  under  whom  he  studied  at  Gottingen. 
The  assertion  seems  to  me  very  improbable.  If  his 
teacher  at  Gottingen  had  made  him  love  history,  he 
would  hardly  have  come  home  filled  with  enthusiasm 
for  another  subject.  As  to  historical  method,  Heeren's 
characteristics  were  balanced  judgment,  impartiality, 
and  great  insight;  and  he  gave  much  prominence  to 
the  economic  factors  of  history.  Probably  no  critic 
will  claim  that  Bancroft  had  these  qualities  in  a  high 
degree.  He  was  chiefly  a  historian  of  political  life. 

1  See  above,  page  153. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  179 

Moreover,  Heeren's  style  was  exceedingly  dry,  while 
Bancroft's  was  exceedingly  vivid.  A  chapter  of  the 
German's  book  is  a  series  of  minute  statements  of  fact, 
concise  and  brief  :  one  of  Bancroft's  chapters  is  a  scene 
from  a  drama,  in  which  unity  of  action,  enthusiasm 
for  the  subject,  and  descriptive  power  are  joined  in 
a  brilliant  manner.  But  for  the  fact  that  the  young 
writer  studied  under  the  old  writer,  it  is  doubtful  if 
anyone  would  have  thought  of  saying  that  Bancroft 
was  influenced  by  Heeren.  It  is  probable  that  Ban 
croft  fashioned  himself  according  to  the  gift  he  had 
from  nature.  Certainly  his  appreciation  for  the 
beauties  of  classical  literature,  ancient  and  modern, 
had  some  appreciable  influence  on  his  literary  style. 

The  first  volume  of  the  "History  of  the  United 
States  from  the  Discovery  of  the  American  Continent" 
was  published  in  1834.  It  was  probably  written  in 
1832  and  1833.  The  preface,  dated  June  16,  1834, 
contains  this  statement : 

"I  have  formed  the  design  of  writing  a  '  History  of  the  United 
States  from  the  Discovery  of  the  American  Continent '  to  the  present 
time.  As  the  moment  arrives  for  publishing  a  portion  of  the  work, 
I  am  impressed  more  strongly  than  ever  with  a  sense  of  the  grandeur 
and  vastness  of  the  subject ;  and  am  ready  to  charge  myself  with 
presumption  for  venturing  on  so  bold  an  enterprise.  I  can  find 
for  myself  no  excuse  but  in  the  sincerity  with  which  I  have  sought 
to  collect  truth  from  trustworthy  documents  and  testimony.  I 
have  desired  to  give  to  the  work  the  interest  of  authenticity.  I 
have  applied,  as  I  have  proceeded,  the  principles  of  historical 
skepticism,  and,  not  allowing  myself  to  grow  weary  in  comparing 
witnesses,  or  consulting  codes  of  laws,  I  have  endeavored  to  impart 


180  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

originality  to  my  narrative,  by  deriving  it  from  writings  and 
sources  which  were  the  contemporaries  of  the  events  that  are 
described.  Where  different  nations  or  different  parties  have  been 
engaged  in  the  same  scenes,  I  have  not  failed  to  examine  their 
respective  reports.  Such  an  investigation  on  any  country  would 
be  laborious ;  I  need  not  say  how  much  the  labor  is  increased  by 
the  extent  of  our  republic,  the  differences,  in  the  origin  and  early 
government  of  its  component  parts,  and  the  multiplicity  of  topics, 
which  require  to  be  discussed  and  arranged." 

Much  error,  he  continued,  had  crept  into  American 
history,  as  it  had  been  written,  through  the  habit  of 
one  historian  accepting  blindly  what  had  been  said  by 
a  predecessor.  He  had  tried  to  remedy  this  defect  by 
consulting  sources  only.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  he  examined  most  carefully  all  the  available 
source  material  within  his  reach  in  America. 

Following  the  preface  was  an  "Introduction."  It 
opened  with  the  statement,  "The  United  States  consti 
tute  an  essential  portion  of  a  great  political  system, 
embracing  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth.  At  a 
period  when  the  force  of  moral  opinion  is  rapidly  in 
creasing,  they  have  the  precedence  in  the  practice  and 
the  defence  of  the  equal  rights  of  man."  Then  follows 
a  long  and  glowing  panegyric  on  the  American  govern 
ment.  The  idea  that  the  history  of  all  civilized  nations 
is  a  unity  was  a  favorite  theory  of  contemporary 
scholars  and  served  its  purpose  in  breaking  down  the 
habit  of  treating  national  history  as  isolated  from  world 
history.  Heeren  held  the  view,  and  Bancroft  probably 
caught  the  phrase  from  him.  But  the  American  seems 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  181 

to  have  used  it  only  to  vouch  for  his  scholarship  of  the 
German  brand.  Having  announced  that  the  United 
States  were  a  part  of  a  great  world  system,  he  went  on 
to  show  that  they  were  far  ahead  of  all  the  other 
nations  of  the  world;  and  in  taking  up  the  story  of 
their  past  he  treated  it  much  as  faithful  Thomas 
Hutchinson  or  Jeremy  Belknap  would  have  treated  it. 
A  sensible  historian  needs  no  theorization  of  univer 
sality  to  know  that  he  should  not  neglect  the  European 
background  of  American  history.  On  the  other  hand, 
American  history  is  essentially  American. 

Bancroft's  first  volume  carried  the  story  to  the 
restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  1660.  It  was  no  sooner 
published  than  the  second  was  begun  and  brought 
steadily  forward  to  its  publication  in  1837.  Writing 
was  now  his  only  employment,  and  we  may  here  see 
about  how  fast  Bancroft  worked.  The  third  volume 
came  out  in  1840  and  no  more  appeared  until  1852, 
when  the  fourth  and  fifth  were  issued.  The  sixth  came 
out  in  1854,  the  seventh  in  1858,  the  eighth  in  1860, 
the  ninth  in  1866,  and  the  tenth  in  1875.  The  title 
of  the  first  volume  announced  that  the  work  would 
bring  the  story  down  to  the  "present  time":  subse 
quent  volumes  were  content  with  the  title,  "History 
of  the  United  States  from  the  Discovery  of  the  Ameri 
can  Continent."  The  author  had  come  to  realize  how 
large  was  his  task,  and  the  tenth  volume  completed 
the  story  of  the  revolution. 

Bancroft's  early  volumes  were  marred  by  his  enthu- 


182  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

siasm  for  democratic  institutions,  leading  him  to  fervid 
outbreaks  in  praise  of  liberty.  As  Professor  Jameson 
says,  they  voted  for  Jackson.1  In  his  mature  years 
Bancroft  himself  became  aware  of  this  defect  and  re 
wrote  his  early  volumes  with  many  chastening  touches. 
Nevertheless,  the  first  volume  made  a  great  impression 
when  it  appeared.  Edward  Everett  read  it  through 
in  less  than  twenty-four  hours  and  seized  his  pen  and 
wrote:  "You  have  written  a  work  which  will  last 
while  the  memory  of  America  lasts;  and  which  will 
instantly  take  its  place  among  the  classics  of  our  lan 
guage.  It  is  full  of  learning,  information,  common 
sense,  and  philosophy;  full  of  taste  and  eloquence; 
full  of  life  and  power.  You  give  us  not  wretched 
pasteboard  men ;  not  a  sort  of  chronological  table, 
with  the  dates  written  out  at  length,  after  the  manner 
of  most  historians  :  —  but  you  give  us  real,  individual, 
living  men  and  women,  with  their  passions,  interests, 
and  peculiarities."  2  Judge  Story,  after  reading  some 
of  the  proof-sheets,  wrote :  "I  think  your  work  will  be 
very  interesting  and  useful.  You  have  infused  into 
it  a  very  spirited,  chaste,  and  vigorous  narrative."  3 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  said:  "The  history  is  richer 
not  only  in  anecdotes  of  great  men,  but  of  the  great 
heart  of  towns  and  provinces  than  I  dared  believe; 
and  —  what  surprised  and  charmed  me  —  it  starts 

1  Jameson,  "  Historical  Writing  in  America,"  107. 

2  Everett  to  Bancroft,  Oct.  5,  1834.     Bancroft  MSS. 

3  Story  to  Bancroft,  May  15,  1834.     Bancroft  MSS. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  183 

tears,  and  almost  makes  them  overflow  on  many  and 
many  a  page.  ...  It  is  noble  matter,  and  I  am 
heartily  glad  to  have  it  nobly  treated."  Theodore 
Parker  wrote:  "You  are  likely  to  make,  what  I  long 
since  told  you  I  looked  for  from  you,  the  most  noble 
and  splendid  piece  of  historical  composition,  not  only 
in  English,  but  in  any  tongue."  1 

These  comments  were  made  by  men  who  stood  in  the 
first  rank  in  their  day,  and  they  are  not  lightly  to  be 
set  aside.  They  tell  us  plainly  that  Bancroft  as  an 
historian  had  fulfilled  the  requirement  of  his  time. 
The  statements  are  supported  by  the  large  sales  the 
book  had.  The  first  volume,  published  in  1834,  had 
reached  its  twenty-sixth  edition  in  1878.  To  both 
kinds  of  testimony  add  the  fact  that  the  History  gave 
Bancroft  the  undisputed  rank  of  greatest  living  histo 
rian  of  his  country.  It  made  him  famous  among 
writers,  politicians,  and  statesmen.  No  other  history 
written  in  our  country  has  had  the  distinction  of  start 
ing  tears  in  the  eyes  of  an  Emerson,  opening  the  doors  of 
high  cabinet  and  diplomatic  appointment,  and  filling  its 
author's  pockets  with  the  glittering  coin  of  the  republic. 

And  yet  posterity  has  its  doubts.  Bancroft's  His 
tory  is  now  out  of  date,  and  a  changing  age  treats  it 
with  disdain.  It  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  genera 
tion  that  demands  less  color  and  more  repose.  His 
quick  and  nervous  summation  of  facts  is  not  suited  to 
the  careful  weighing  of  evidence. 

i  See  Howe.  "Life  and  Letters  of  George  Bancroft,"  II,  107, 


184  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

The  weightiest  charge  against  Bancroft  is  the  lack 
of  detachment.  American  he  was  in  spite  of  the  strong 
impression  German  criticism  had  made  on  him.  He 
assumed  that  the  United  States  were  founded  on  a 
plan  superior  to  that  of  other  nations,  and  that  their 
growth  verified  his  theory.  The  dispute  of  the  colo 
nies  with  England,  to  which  a  large  portion  of  his  book 
is  devoted,  had  for  him  only  one  side.  In  Bancroft's 
time  no  historian  in  either  the  United  States  or  Great 
Britain  had  treated  the  revolution  with  discrimi 
nation.  To  all  it  was  a  thing  to  be  defended  or  con 
demned,  as  the  feelings  of  the  writer  dictated.  Ban 
croft  was  no  worse  than  the  others.  Strongly  partisan 
by  nature  and  deeply  imbued  with  the  love  of  American 
independence,  he  glorified  the  struggle  of  the  revolu 
tionary  fathers,  and  saw  no  good  in  the  position  taken 
by  king  and  parliament.  He  crystallized  all  the  hero 
worship  of  the  old  Fourth-of-July  school  into  a  large 
work  written  in  a  style  acceptable  to  the  time. 

George  Bancroft  spent  eight  years  of  his  life  in 
Boston,  four  of  them  as  collector  of  the  port,  and  four 
as  a  private  citizen.  During  these  years  he  was  a 
leading  democrat  of  Massachusetts.  He  made  speeches 
in  the  interest  of  the  party  and  carried  on  an  active 
correspondence  with  Van  Buren  and  other  party 
leaders.  It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  the  key 
note  of  the  democratic  campaigning  was  the  attack  on 
the  aristocracy.  Bancroft's  speeches  on  this  phase  of 
the  general  discussions  differ  from  those  of  other  demo- 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  185 

cratic  speakers  only  in  style.  This  fact  will  enable 
the  reader  to  imagine  the  feelings  Boston  entertained 
for  him.  Of  all  his  old  friends  Prescott  alone,  whose 
gentle  soul  found  the  good  in  every  man,  remained 
cordial.  To  a  high-born  Boston  lady  Bancroft  once 
said:  "I  did  not  find  you  at  home  when  I  called." 
"No,  and  you  never  will,"  was  the  reply. 

To  this  kind  of  opposition  Bancroft  turned  a  face 
hardened  by  abuse.  In  the  letters  he  wrote  to  Van 
Buren,  he  gloried  in  his  martyrdom.  If  he  felt  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  scholar,  it  does  not  show  in  his 
correspondence,  not  even  in  his  letters  to  his  wife.  A 
part  of  the  period  referred  to  he  was  chairman  of  the 
state  democratic  committee ;  he  tried  to  distribute  the 
patronage ;  he  denounced  the  opponents  of  Van  Buren 
and  was  called  on  by  that  statesman  to  write  replies 
to  some  of  the  many  questions  that  were  asked  him 
by  friend  and  foe;  he  was  nominated  for  the  state 
senate;  and  in  1844  he  was  a  delegate  at  large  to  the 
democratic  national  convention. 

But  his  crowning  party  effort  at  this  time  was  to 
write  a  campaign  life  of  Van  Buren.  The  task  was 
first  assigned  to  William  L.  Marcy,  who  refused,  saying : 
"I  abominate  man  worship,  and  to  escape  from  the 
slightest  suspicion  of  it,  should  be  likely  to  come  short 
of  what  might  be  said  with  truth  and  propriety."  1 
Van  Buren,  who  was  promoting  the  scheme,  then  ap- 

1  Marcy  to  Van  Buren,  Feb.  1844.  "  Proceedings  "  of  the  Mass.  Histl. 
Soc.,  1909,  p.  419. 


186  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

preached  Bancroft,  who  accepted  readily.  He  worked 
hard  on  the  task,  and  had  it  nearly  complete  when 
Van  Buren's  nomination  was  rendered  impossible  by 
combinations  of  factions  in  the  convention  of  1844. 
How  completely  Bancroft  played  the  role  of  party 
servant  is  seen  in  his  words  written  when  sending  to 
Van  Buren  a  portion  of  the  finished  manuscript.  "I 
look  to  you,"  he  said,  "that  not  one  word  escapes  that 
is  not  strictly  true,  and  further,  that  is  not  free  from 
the  censure  of  being  unwise.  Erase,  add,  explain, 
comment,  give  me  hints.  I  have  no  pride  of  author 
ship.  I  am  a  calm,  tranquil  friend  of  the  cause."  1 
It  is  hard  to  have  patience  with  a  spirit  so  little  in 
harmony  with  the  attitude  of  a  true  historian.  More 
over,  it  is  in  striking  contrast  with  Bancroft's  own 
position  when  Sparks  took  the  liberty  of  making  him 
say  what  he  had  not  intended  to  say.  For  "the 
cause"  the  author,  it  is  evident,  doffed  his  garb  of 
historian  and  took  the  habit  of  party  hack.  The  life 
of  Van  Buren  was  not  published  in  1844,  as  intended. 
When  it  finally  appeared  in  1889  it  had  the  title, 
"Martin  Van  Buren  to  the  end  of  his  Public  Career." 
It  proved  a  colorless  affair,  a  thing  Bancroft  should 
not  have  published  at  all. 

In  his  "History"  Bancroft  accused  James  Grahame, 
author  of  a  history  of  the  United  States,  of  inventing 
a  statement  reflecting  on  John  Clarke,  of  Rhode 

1  Bancroft  to  Van  Buren,  April  22,  1844.  "  Proceedings  "  of  the  Mass. 
Histl.  Soc.,  1909,  p.  425. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  187 

Island.  As  a  champion  of  democracy  Bancroft  was 
disposed  to  take  the  side  of  the  men  of  Rhode  Island 
against  the  criticisms  that  the  rulers  of  Massachusetts 
made  against  them.  His  accusation  against  Grahame 
brought  on  a  controversy,  in  which  Josiah  Quincy, 
American  editor  of  the  author  named,  took  a  promi 
nent  part.  Bancroft  was  deluged  with  scorn,  and 
wrote  a  cutting  reply  which,  however,  he  was  per 
suaded  to  leave  unpublished  after  it  had  been  put  into 
type.1 

Another  notable  controversy  was  with  Colonel 
George  W.  Greene,  grandson  and  biographer  of  General 
Nathanael  Greene.  Bancroft,  in  his  ninth  volume, 
threw  on  Greene  the  responsibility  for  the  loss  of  Fort 
Washington,  and  otherwise  criticized  Greene's  conduct 
in  the  early  part  of  the  revolutionary  war.  The 
grandson  replied  in  a  sharp  pamphlet,  to  which  Ban 
croft  retorted  in  an  article  in  the  North  American  Review, 
followed  by  a  second  reply  from  Colonel  Greene,  pub 
lished  in  the  same  journal.  The  points  at  issue  were 
very  subordinate,  and  it  seems  that  if  Bancroft's 
language  was  not  exactly  well  chosen  for  the  subject 
to  which  it  referred,  it  was  at  least  not  as  condemna 
tory  of  Greene  as  the  critic  thought.  It  is  certain 
that  the  Colonel  wrote  in  a  bad  spirit,  which  could  not 
have  been  wholly  due  to  his  sensitiveness  in  defending 
the  fame  of  an  ancestor. 

Bancroft  was  unquestionably  a  great  scholar,  and 

1Howe,  "Life  of  Bancroft,"  I,  138-140. 


188  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  his  industry.  Nor  can  it 
be  said  that  he  had  any  other  prejudice  than  his  intense 
partiality  for  the  American  side  of  the  revolutionary 
controversy.  If  he  made  mistakes  in  his  estimates  of 
the  conduct  of  men,  they  were  doubtless  honest  mis 
takes.  Men  who  write  with  the  hastening  fingers  of 
imagination  sometimes  drop  into  obscurity  details  which 
more  literally  minded  persons  would  consider  very  im 
portant  ;  or  they  use  expressions  meaning  less  or  more 
than  they  intend  them  to  mean.  Probably  Bancroft,  who 
was  always  a  stylist,  was  guilty  to  some  extent  of  this 
form  of  error;  and  on  this  basis  most  of  the  criti 
cisms  made  upon  his  "History"  could  be  explained. 
Such  an  explanation  lessens  our  censure,  though  it 
does  not  remove  it  entirely. 

5.   Bancroft  as  a  Statesman 

In  the  year  1844  Bancroft  was  the  candidate  for 
governor  of  Massachusetts  on  the  democratic  ticket. 
He  could  not  have  expected  success ;  for  the  state  was 
strongly  whig,  and  Clay  was  running  for  the  presi 
dency.  He  was  in  the  same  year  a  delegate-at-large 
to  the  national  nominating  convention  of  his  party, 
going  there  as  a  strong  Van  Buren  man.  When  he 
realized  that  his  favorite  could  not  succeed,  he  gave 
his  attention  to  defeating  Cass,  in  whose  support  many 
of  Van  Buren's  opponents  were  united.  He  was  influ 
ential  in  carrying  a  portion  of  his  own  delegation  over 
to  Polk  at  the  critical  time,  sweeping  along  many  other 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  189 

New  England  delegates  as  they  went.  He  believed 
that  he  thus  turned  the  tide  in  favor  of  the  "dark 
horse,"  and  five  weeks  after  the  convention  adjourned 
he  sent  Polk  an  explicit  account  of  his  actions.  On 
this  side  of  his  career  Bancroft  did  not  differ  from  the 
average  American  politician. 

In  recognition  of  his  position  in  the  party,  Polk  made 
him  secretary  of  the  navy.  He  himself  would  have 
preferred  a  diplomatic  post,  but  he  was  pleased  with 
the  cabinet  position.  While  he  waited  in  Washington 
to  know  what  would  be  offered  he  wrote  to  his  wife  as 
follows :  "The  President  elect  keeps  his  own  counsels 
most  closely ;  but  some  of  those  in  the  street  seem  to 
think,  that  the  husband  of  a  woman  like  yourself, 
should  assuredly  be  one  of  the  Clerks  of  the  President ; 
and  as  people  do  not  know  the  cause  of  my  coming 
here,  they  draw  queer  inferences.  Time  will  unfold  all 
things,  among  the  rest  whether  you  are  to  mope  in 
Winthrop-place ;  or  reign  in  Washington;  or  freeze 
your  nose  in  some  German  Lapland."  1  His  fate  was 
a  brief  reign  in  Washington,  and  after  that  the  court 
of  St.  James.  It  was  a  sudden  change  that  a  man 
who  had  been  forced  to  endure  many  slights  in  his 
own  town  was  set  in  the  highest  circle  of  the  country. 
But  violent  as  the  transition  was,  Bancroft  made  it 
with  success.  The  little  man  whose  exuberant  man 
ners  brought  the  severe  rebuke  from  Professor  Norton 
in  1822  was  in  1845  recognized  as  a  remarkable  success 

1  Howe,  "Life  and  Letters  of  George  Bancroft,"  I,  259. 


190  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

in  all  things  social.  His  house  in  Washington  became 
noted  for  its  good  company,  and  its  master  and  mis 
tress  were  among  the  most  desirable  guests  in  the  best 
houses  of  the  city.  The  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 
is  shown  in  the  remark  ascribed  to  President  Arthur, 
that  the  President  of  the  United  States  was  "per 
mitted  to  accept  the  invitations  of  members  of  his 
cabinet,  supreme  court  judges,  and  —  Mr.  George 
Bancroft."  Ample  means  enabled  Bancroft  to  enter 
tain  in  a  handsome  manner,  but  good  taste  and  a 
careful  appreciation  of  select  company  united  in  mak 
ing  his  entertainments  successful. 

As  secretary  of  the  navy,  Bancroft  is  chiefly  remem 
bered  for  the  establishment  of  the  Naval  Academy  at 
Annapolis,  in  keeping  with  an  idea  that  many  per 
sons  had  previously  entertained.  He  gave  himself  to 
the  routine  of  his  office  with  great  earnestness.  He 
followed  the  advice  of  his  friend  Van  Buren  as  faith 
fully  as  he  could:  "Stand  aloof  from  all  schemes  and 
intrigues  of  which  you  will  soon  see  abundance.  Let 
your  course  be  distinguished  by  a  singleness  of  devo 
tion  to  the  duties  of  your  Department,  and  the  time 
will  come  when  you  will  find  an  advantage  from  this 
course  beyond  what  is  the  ordinary  reward  of  virtuous 
actions."  Van  Buren's  words  are  illustrative  of  the 
political  ideal  of  the  time.  Try  hard  to  avoid  the  job- 
makers  and  stick  to  your  desk,  summed  it  up.  Noth 
ing  was  said  about  the  duty  of  a  secretary  of  the  navy 
to  know  anything  about  the  navy.  Bancroft  was  no 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  191 

better  and  no  worse  than  most  of  the  men  who  have 
been  appointed  to  the  position. 

As  secretary  he  had  many  difficulties.  He  soon 
brought  down  upon  himself  the  opposition  of  a  large 
part  of  the  service  through  ignoring  the  rule  of  promo 
tion  by  seniority.  He  adopted  the  more  reasonable 
method  of  promotion  for  ability ;  but  it  is  doubtful  if 
he  knew  men  well  enough  to  execute  this  method  fairly. 
At  any  rate,  his  decisions  were  roundly  criticized, 
and  at  last  the  senate  seemed  to  give  color  to  the 
charge  by  refusing  to  confirm  some  of  his  nomina 
tions.  It  was  the  signal  for  shifting  him  to  the  diplo 
matic  service.  McLane,  minister  to  London,  wished 
to  come  home  and  Bancroft  took  his  place,  arriving  in 
England,  October  25,  1846. 

Of  his  three  years  in  this  position  this  sketch  can 
take  little  notice;  for  it  was  not  a  time  in  which  his 
historical  activity,  except  in  the  collection  of  materials, 
was  notable.  "Here  in  London,"  he  wrote  to  Pres- 
cott,  "to  write  is  impossible;  except  dispatches  and 
notes  of  which  I  have  indited,  on  little  nothings  and  a 
few  matters  of  importance,  as  much  as  would  make  in 
bulk  the  Conquest  of  Mexico."  1  Social  life  was  very 
exacting,  and  he  and  his  wife  gave  themselves  up  to  it. 
It  was  a  sphere  in  which  they  both  had  much  ability, 
and  they  were  popular  in  the  capital.  Bancroft,  it  is 
likely,  found  great  pleasure  in  the  acquaintances  he 
formed  among  literary  men,  especially  among  the  his- 

1  Howe,  "Life  and  Letters  of  Bancroft,"  II,  43. 


192  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

torians.  Hallam,  Milman,  Lord  Mahon,  and  Macaulay 
he  came  to  know  well.  His  own  estimate  of  the  his 
torians  is  seen  in  his  high  praise  of  the  last  named, 
whom  he  pronounced  the  greatest  of  the  group,  and  of 
whom  he  said : 

"He  has  the  most  nearly  universal  knowledge  of  any  man  I  ever 
met;  and  his  memory  is  as  much  disciplined  to  accuracy,  as  the 
extent  of  his  reading  is  boundless.  I  have  met  him  in  all  sorts  of 
companies,  and  everywhere  he  is  the  oracle  of  all  present.  Among 
churchmen  he  shows  more  knowledge  of  ecclesiastics  than  all  the 
bishops;  he  will  go  ahead  of  Milman  and  keep  hi  advance  in 
quoting  the  fathers  of  the  church  and  even  the  later  Latin  authors ; 
and  when  Hallam  falters  about  a  letter  of  Pliny,  he  will  give  its 
date  and  tenour,  and  perhaps  begin  to  quote  it  word  for  word.  I 
think  him,  what  is  so  rare,  greater  than  his  books."  1 

In  1847  Bancroft  made  short  visits  to  Paris  to  col 
lect  material  bearing  on  the  American  revolution.  He 
was  well  received  by  leading  literary  men,  among  them 
Guizot,  Thierry,  Lamartine,  Cousin,  Mignet,  Thiers, 
Louis  Blanc,  and  de  Tocqueville.  Seven  times  at 
least,  says  his  biographer,  he  visited  Paris  on  this 
business  between  March,  1847,  and  September,  1849. 
Add  to  the  time  necessary  for  these  visits  the  time  he 
gave  to  the  collections  in  London,  and  we  see  how  little 
of  the  three  years  he  was  minister  was  really  given  to 
the  duties  of  the  legation.  His  avowed  purpose  in 
accepting  the  position  was  to  have  the  opportunity 
to  collect  materials  on  the  revolution ;  and  he  was 
prepared  to  retire  as  soon  as  that  object  was  secured. 

1  Howe,  "Life  and  Letters  of  Bancroft,"  H,  16. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  193 

The  triumph  of  the  whigs  in  1848  gave  him  fair  notice 
that  his  tenure  was  short.  He  said  it  made  little 
difference,  since  he  had  from  the  first  intended  to  re 
sign  as  soon  as  he  completed  his  researches,  and  had 
Cass  been  elected  he  would  have  returned  early  in  the 
new  administration.  •  As  it  was,  he  remained  until 
September  1,  held  there  by  his  feverish  desire  to  finish 
the  work  in  the  French  archives,  and  by  the  fortunate 
accident  that  Abbott  Lawrence,  his  successor,  was  not 
ready  to  go  to  London  until  the  autumn. 

Back  in  America,  Bancroft  settled  in  New  York, 
buying  at  the  same  time  a  pleasant  home  in  Newport 
in  which  he  spent  his  summers.  His  city  house  in 
Twenty-first  Street  was  the  scene  of  much  hospitality. 
Here  were  installed  the  transcripts  of  documents  he  had 
examined  abroad,  handsomely  bound  with  gilt  tops. 
Here,  too,  were  completed  the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth, 
seventh,  and  eighth  volumes  of  the  "History."  When 
the  fourth  appeared,  in  1852,  twelve  years  had  elapsed 
since  its  immediate  predecessor  had  been  issued.  They 
were  twelve  years  mostly  lost  to  literature.  For  the 
eighteen  years  he  lived  in  New  York,  1849  to  1867,  he 
had  a  better  record;  but  even  here  there  must  have 
been  much  waste  of  time.  The  eighth  volume  ap 
peared  in  1860,  making  five  volumes  in  twelve  years, 
which  was  no  great  thing  considering  that  the  volumes 
contained  on  an  average  one  hundred  and  forty-one 
thousand  words.  The  ninth  and  tenth  volumes  ap 
peared  together  in  1874,  after  fourteen  years  of  silence. 


194  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

It  is  hard  to  find  a  great  German  or  French  historian 
of  the  period  who  worked  so  fitfully. 

During  most  of  this  period  Bancroft  found  himself 
out  of  sympathy  with  the  democratic  party.  A  close 
follower  of  the  displaced  Van  Buren  and  little  known 
in  New  York,  he  found  himself  of  slight  account  among 
the  politicians.  He  was,  also,  opposed  to  the  pro- 
slavery  influence  then  dominating  his  party,  and  could 
accept  neither  the  position  of  Pierce  on  Kansas  nor 
the  doctrines  of  Taney  in  the  Dred  Scott  case.  The 
result  was  that  he  was  entirely  out  of  politics  as  long 
as  the  democrats  ruled  the  country,  a  remarkable  situ 
ation  for  a  man  who  had  been  so  much  engaged  in  this 
field  in  1844.  "I  am  persuaded,"  he  said  in  1857, 
"the  South  has  gained  nothing  by  some  extreme  no 
tions  that  have  been  put  forth ;  and  I  see  and  know, 
that  we  of  the  Northern  democracy,  have  been  dread 
fully  routed  in  consequence,  and  are  handed  over  to  the 
most  corrupt  set  of  political  opponents,  that  I  have 
ever  encountered."  1 

During  the  war  Bancroft's  feelings  were  entirely 
with  the  administration.  He  met  Lincoln  and  formed 
a  poor  opinion  of  his  ability.  He  regarded  Seward  as 
a  disagreeable  man.  But  he  kept  on  friendly  terms 
with  both.  In  1862  a  faction  of  the  republicans  in 
New  York  wished  to  nominate  him  for  congress,  but 
he  declined  on  the  ground  that  his  candidacy  would 
endanger  the  republican  cause  in  the  district.2  Never- 

1  Howe,  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Bancroft,"  II,  128.          2  Ibid.,  II,  157. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  195 

theless,  he  called  himself  a  democrat,  and  as  the  war 
drew  to  an  end  he  began  to  pick  up  again  the  old 
threads  of  his  party  association. 

Opportunity  came  to  put  them  into  play  when  An 
drew  Johnson,  president  through  the  crime  of  Booth, 
took  up  the  plan  of  establishing  a  moderate  party  out 
of  all  the  liberal  elements  then  in  politics.  Northern 
democrats  who  were  not  tinctured  with  copperhead- 
ism,  republicans  who  had  supported  Lincoln's  liberal 
views,  and  old  whigs  were  to  be  united  in  a  great 
liberal  movement;  and  to  this  project  Bancroft  gave 
his  allegiance  and  his  aid,  helping  in  an  effective,  if 
secret,  manner.  Johnson  was  self-educated  and  dis 
trusted  his  ability  to  prepare  a  state  paper.  When 
his  first  message  was  laid  before  congress,  December  4, 
1865,  it  aroused  happy  surprise.  Newspapers  and 
individuals  were  delighted  at  this  evidence,  as  they 
put  it,  that  a  plain  man  from  the  Southern  mountains 
could  write  so  excellent  a  paper.  For  forty  years  the 
country  continued  under  this  impression;  but  at  last 
Professor  Dunning  proved  that  this  excellent  paper 
was  written  by  George  Bancroft  and  not  by  Andrew 
Johnson.1  This  act  marked  Bancroft's  return  to  politi 
cal  life.  It  was  followed  by  his  appointment  in  1867 
to  the  position  of  minister  in  Berlin,  a  post  he  held 
until  1874. 

It  has  been  a  subject  of  comment  that  Bancroft, 
appointed  by  Johnson,  could  have  held  office  so  long 

1  See  "Proceedings"  of  the  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.,  1905,  p.  395. 


196  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

under  Grant.  He  himself  said  that  he  was  a  Grant 
man  when  appointed  in  1867,  and  that  he  received  a 
letter  from  Grant  strongly  approving  the  nomination. 
It  is  doubtful,  however,  if  Johnson  knew  of  this  rela 
tion,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  if  the  senate  had 
known  that  Bancroft  wrote  the  message  of  1867  his 
confirmation  would  have  had  strong  opposition.  Our 
historian  was  a  crafty  man  in  the  affairs  of  this  world. 
He  was  too  wise  to  trust  his  fate  in  the  new  adminis 
tration  to  the  chain  of  friendship  merely,  and  he  did 
some  skillful  polishing  of  the  links  on  his  own  part. 
Probably  it  was  not  by  accident  that  on  the  morning 
of  the  fateful  fourth  of  March,  1869,  the  "leading 
liberal  newspaper  in  Berlin"  contained  flattering  allu 
sion  to  General  Grant.  On  that  day  Bancroft  gave 
a  party  for  Bismarck  and  several  of  the  higher  officers 
of  state,  and  at  the  proper  moment  the  chancellor 
toasted  in  glowing  words  the  new  President  of  the 
United  States.  Bancroft  replied  with  a  toast  to  the 
King  of  Prussia.  Next  day  he  wrote  Grant  a  letter  of 
congratulations,  but  he  was  too  shrewd  to  tell  him  about 
the  marks  of  approval  in  Berlin  :  that  was  a  thing  for 
the  dispatch  to  the  secretary  of  state  written  March  5, 
1869.  To  the  letter  to  Grant  he  added  this  postscript : 

"Count  Bismarck,  who  had  not  dined  out  during  the  winter  with 
one  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  gladly  accepted  my  invitation  for 
yesterday  out  of  his  desire  to  prove  you  his  regard.  I  assure  you 
we  had  a  very  pleasant  time ;  I  never  saw  Bismarck  so  much  at  his 
ease,  so  full  of  mirth  and  frolic." l 

1See  "Proceedings"  of  the  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.,  1905,  VI,  223-226. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  197 

No  American  minister  has  been  more  popular  in  the 
capital  to  which  he  was  accredited  than  Bancroft  in 
Berlin.  He  became  an  intimate  friend  of  Bismarck  in 
the  beginning  of  his  residence,  and  from  that  vantage 
point  it  was  easy  to  enter  any  door.  The  king  showed 
him  marked  favor ;  princes,  dukes,  the  queen  and  her 
highest  ladies  vied  with  scholars  and  writers  to  show 
him  their  esteem.  He  lived  in  a  handsome  house  on 
the  Thiergarten,  where  his  entertainments  were  well 
known  for  elegance.  He  was  very  fond  of  horseback 
riding,  a  practice  he  continued  until  old  age,  and  on  his 
daily  jaunt  frequently  had  the  chancellor  for  his 
companion. 

Bancroft  was  in  Berlin  during  the  Franco-Prussian 
war.  His  sympathies  were  strongly  on  the  German 
side,  and  he  showed  them  so  plainly  that  the  French 
came  to  understand  his  bias.  He  now  became  the 
object  of  contempt  in  Paris,  a  city  in  which  he  had 
formerly  received  many  courtesies.  Victor  Hugo,  with 
that  withering  scorn  for  which  he  was  noted  when 
dealing  with  the  catastrophes  for  which  Louis  Napo 
leon  was  responsible,  held  up  Bancroft  to  the  world  in 
two  bitter  poems.  In  one  Bancroft  is  told  that  he 
insults  France;  and  the  poet  exclaims  :  "She  does  not 
perceive  in  her  widow's  weeds  or  her  fetes  the  kind  of 
obscure  and  vague  shadow  which  you  are.  Try  to  be 
some  one,  Tiberius,  Ghengis  Khan,  the  human  flea,  or 
the  human  volcano,  and  we  will  examine  you  to  see  if 
you  are  worth  the  trouble  of  our  contempt.  Have  a 


198  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

title  to  our  hatred  and  we  will  see  about  it.  If  not, 
go  away!"  *  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  what 
it  was  that  aroused  the  poet's  ire;  but  Bancroft 
was  a  man  of  strong  impulses,  and  it  is  possible  that 
his  enthusiasm  for  the  German  cause  was  not  restrained 
within  the  bounds  of  neutrality. 

Berlin  brought  out  the  inherent  love  of  social  dis 
tinction  that  Bancroft  ever  had.  He  was  just  the 
material  to  make  a  good  Junker,  and  his  association 
with  the  official  class  of  the  city  furnished  the  training 
and  the  opportunity  to  develop  his  nature.  Leopold 
von  Ranke  said  to  him  one  day :  "Do  you  know  what 
I  say  of  you  to  my  classes?  ...  I  tell  my  hearers 
that  your  history  is  the  best  book  ever  written  from 
the  democratic  point  of  view.  You  are  thoroughly 
consistent,  adhere  strictly  to  your  method,  carry  it 
out  in  many  directions,  but  in  all  with  fidelity,  and  are 
always  true  to  it."  2  On  this,  Bancroft's  comment, 
expressed  in  a  letter  to  a  relative,  was:  "If  there  is 
democracy  in  the  history  it  is  not  subjective,  but  ob 
jective,  as  they  say  here."  Thirty  years  earlier  he 
gloried  in  his  love  of  democracy,  and  to  one  who  found 
it  in  his  "History"  he  would  have  replied  that  it  was 
his  intention  to  make  the  book  a  tribute  to  democracy. 
An  anecdote  told  in  Washington  about  the  time  of  his 
death  illustrates  how  much  he  took  on  the  German 
color  in  his  later  life.  It  was  his  habit  to  ride  past 

1  See  "  Proceedings  "  of  the  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.,  1905,  II,  252. 
8  Howe,  "Life  of  George  Bancroft,"  II,  183. 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  199 

the  Soldiers'  Home  when  taking  his  daily  exercise. 
A  gentleman  who  met  him  several  times  without  know 
ing  him,  ventured  to  ask  of  the  guard  at  the  gate  of 
the  Home  who  was  that  old  gentleman  with  a  military 
look  who  rode  by  so  often.  The  guard  replied :  "That 
is  an  old  German  named  Bancroft." 

That  Bancroft  could  so  readily  take  on  the  ideals  of 
his  environment  was  characteristic  of  his  quickly  im 
aginative  mind.  He  was  all  fire,  and  ever  ready  to  run 
away  with  any  glowing  prospect  that  opened  before 
him.  He  probably  thought  less  about  principles  than 
about  accomplishing  the  things  that  he  considered 
desirable.  Just  returned  from  Germany,  face  to  face 
with  New  England  democracy,  he  could  exclaim  to 
President  Kirkland  in  1823:  "I  love  to  observe  the 
bustle  of  the  world,  but  I  detest  mixing  in  it.  I  like 
to  watch  the  shouts  of  the  multitude,  but  had  rather 
not  scream  with  them."  In  Northampton,  in  face  of 
the  frowning  aristocracy  of  the  "River  Gods,"  and  re 
membering  the  dogged  opposition  his  reforms  had  met 
in  conservative  Harvard,  he  could  turn  with  enthu 
siasm  to  Jeffersonian  democracy;  for  the  Jeffersonian 
democrats  heard  him  gladly  and  gave  tribute  to  his 
greatness.  And  as  long  as  he  ran  forward  in  the  race 
of  political  preferment,  he  loved  and  defended  the 
principles  on  which  his  party  was  founded.  In  com 
fortable  retirement  in  New  York,  with  the  tasks  of  his 
library  before  him  and  the  joys  of  Newport  at  his 
command,  there  was  no  impulse  to  go  back  into  the 


200  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

rough  and  tumble  contest  of  politics.  In  Berlin  at  last, 
with  savants  and  courtiers  in  admiring  circles  around 
him,  he  adopted  the  ideals  they  held.  From  step  to 
step  he  proceeded,  it  seems,  with  sincerity.  That  is 
to  say,  he  believed  for  the  time  being  that  he  followed 
sincere  conviction.  If  posterity  should  judge  him  as  a 
model  of  individual  conduct  it  would  have  to  say  that 
he  was  inconsistent  and  shifting.  But  it  is  as  a  histo 
rian  that  we  must  pass  on  him ;  and  may  we  not  say 
that,  in  spite  of  his  lack  of  continuous  ideals  in  his  per 
sonal  life,  he  was  in  his  literary  life  ever  a  consistent 
American  ?  American  democracy  he  always  defended, 
even  when  he  appeared  in  the  garb  of  a  Teuton. 

6.   Minor  Activities 

Bancroft's  career  has  been  treated  in  its  early  stages  : 
the  first  attempts  in  literature,  his  political  activities, 
his  greatest  literary  achievement  —  the  "History  of 
the  United  States," —  and  his  triumphant  service  as 
minister  to  London  and  to  Berlin.  It  still  remains  to 
consider  some  minor  phases,  in  which  his  actions  had 
enough  importance  to  make  them  essential  to  a  sketch 
of  his  life. 

First  of  all  we  must  consider  his  shorter  writings. 
Fairly  abundant  before  he  published  the  first  volume 
of  his  "History,"  —  as  his  textbooks  and  articles  in  the 
reviews,  —  writings  of  this  class  were  rarely  produced 
after  he  began  his  great  task.  In  1855  came  a  volume 
of  "Literary  and  Historical  Miscellanies."  Like  Pres- 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  201 

cott's  "Biographical  and  Critical  Miscellanies,"  pub 
lished  in  1845,  it  contained  articles  prepared  for  the 
most  part  for  the  North  American  Review.  The  pieces 
are  heavy  and  diffuse,  as  are  most  of  the  articles  in  that 
periodical  at  that  time.  In  1859  he  wrote  a  "Tribute 
to  the  Memory  of  Humboldt,"  publishing  it  in  the 
series  known  as  The  Pulpit  and  Rostrum.  In  connec 
tion  with  the  arbitration  of  the  Northwestern  boundary 
dispute  he  published  confidentially  in  1872  a  "Memo 
rial  on  the  Canal  de  Haro  as  the  boundary  line  of  the 
United  States  of  America,"  an  official  publication.  In 
1886  he  published  under  the  title,  "A  Plea  for  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  of  America  Wounded  in 
the  House  of  its  Guardians, "  a  vigorous  attack  on  a 
recent  decision  of  the  federal  supreme  court  declaring 
that  congress  had  the  right  to  make  paper  money  legal 
tender.1  The  court  had  held  that  at  the  time  the  con 
stitution  was  adopted,  the  power  to  confer  the  legal 
tender  quality  was  an  element  of  sovereignty  and  that 
as  the  constitution  did  not  withhold  this  power  from 
congress  it  was  given  to  it  along  with  the  general  exer 
cise  of  the  rights  of  sovereignty.  Bancroft  traced  the 
history  of  paper  money  in  the  colonies  and  in  the  states 
until  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  showing  that  in 
1787  the  right  to  issue  legal  tender  was  recognized  as 
an  attribute  of  sovereignty.  He  cited  early  opinions 
of  judges  and  statesmen  to  show  that  they  did  not 
consider  that  the  power  in  question  was  conferred  on 

1  Julliard  v.  Greenman,  110  U.  S.  Reports,  421. 


202  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

congress.  It  was  a  state  rights  plea,  a  strong  and  well 
presented  argument,  but  it  attracted  little  attention 
in  the  days  when  the  main  trend  of  constitutional 
interpretation  was  in  an  opposite  direction. 

After  Bancroft  returned  from  Berlin  he  turned  again 
to  his  "History  of  the  United  States,"  the  title  of 
which  was  pronounced  misleading,  since  the  book  did 
not  deal  with  the  union  at  all,  but  only  with  the  colo 
nies  and  the  states  in  revolution.  He  was  sensible  of 
the  weight  of  this  criticism  and  determined  to  carry 
the  story  forward  to  the  adoption  of  the  federal  con 
stitution.  The  work  was  taken  up  with  the  old  time 
zeal,  but  it  was  not  carried  through  with  the  old  time 
success.  The  two  volumes  which  appeared  in  1882 
with  the  title  "History  of  the  Formation  of  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States"  lack  the  fire  of  origi 
nality  and  have  not  been  received  as  an  adequate  treat 
ment  of  the  subject. 

Next  he  prepared  a  final  edition  of  his  "History."  A 
"Centenary  Edition"  of  the  first  ten  volumes,  which 
appeared  with  alterations  in  1876,  was  now  subjected 
to  a  more  rigid  revision.  The  text  was  condensed 
and  with  the  volumes  on  the  constitution  the  whole 
work  appeared  in  six  volumes  as  "The  Author's  Last 
Revision"  (1883-1885).  The  edition  represented  a 
large  amount  of  alteration  in  style.  Naturally  ardent 
in  his  early  life,  Bancroft  was  now  sobered  by  years  and 
experience.  His  "Last  Revision"  embodied  the  re 
sults  of  reflection  and  criticism.  Many  of  the  expres- 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  203 

sions  which  had  given  offense  to  the  relatives  of  his 
torical  characters  were  toned  down,  and  some  were 
changed  outright.  That  exuberance  of  figure  that 
gave  the  early  volumes  a  florid  and  sometimes  a  fan 
tastic  form  was  brought  down  to  the  sober  narration 
that  an  age  of  self-restraint  demanded  of  its  historians. 
What  men  like  Theodore  Parker,  Edward  Everett,  and 
Emerson,  who  found  the  first  volumes  so  "noble," 
would  have  said  of  such  changes  we  know  not ;  but 
they  made  the  work  more  acceptable  to  the  new  genera 
tion  of  writers  and  critics  who  dominated  literary  life 
in  the  last  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century.  As  to 
the  point  of  view,  it  continued  what  it  was  at  first. 
Bancroft  was  in  theory  a  democrat,  and  his  book  re 
mains  our  great  defense  of  the  rise  of  American  nation 
ality,  our  most  fervent  great  apology  for  the  war  of 
independence  in  all  its  untutored  Americanism. 

Bancroft  had  a  high  reputation  in  his  day  for  ele 
gant  and  polished  literary  orations.  He  always  read 
his  productions,  but  he  read  with  good  effect,  and  he 
was  sought  for  service  on  occasions  in  which  historical 
information  and  patriotic  emotions  were  properly 
blended.  Some  of  his  best  efforts  of  this  kind  were  pub 
lished.  Among  them  were  the  oration  at  North 
ampton  in  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence ;  his  oration  at  Springfield, 
July  4,  1836,  a  defense  of  his  party  principles ;  an  ora 
tion  before  the  young  democrats  of  Hartford,  February 
18, 1840 ;  a  eulogy  on  Andrew  Jackson,  Washington,  June 


204  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

27,  1845;  an  oration  on  "The  Necessity,  the  Reality, 
and  the  Promise  of  the  Progress  of  the  Human  Race," 
New  York,  November  20,  1854;  an  oration  at  the 
inauguration  of  the  Perry  statue,  Cleveland,  Septem 
ber  10,  1860 ;  and  two  addresses  on  Lincoln,  one  in  a 
memorial  meeting  in  New  York,  April  25,  1865,  and 
the  other  in  Washington,  February  12,  1866.  The 
second  of  the  Lincoln  addresses  was  delivered  at  the 
request  of  congress  before  the  two  houses  in  joint  ses 
sion,  and  was  probably  the  most  esteemed  of  all  Ban 
croft's  orations.  In  diction,  in  elevated  sentiment,  in 
its  power  of  characterizing  the  dead  Lincoln,  it  has  few 
equals  in  American  eloquence,  and  it  should  be  read 
by  many  generations. 

Bancroft  lived  at  a  time  when  his  historical  investi 
gation  was  dependent  upon  access  to  materials  which 
he  himself  must  collect.  Like  Sparks,  and  to  a  certain 
extent  Belknap,  he  was  forced  to  become  a  collector  of 
manuscripts  and  transcripts.  He  was,  fortunately, 
able  to  have  transcripts  made  as  freely  as  he  wished. 
In  1869  he  said  :  "The  expenses  of  various  kinds  in  col 
lecting  materials,  MSS,  and  books,  in  journeys,  time 
employed  in  researches,  writing,  copyists,  money  paid 
for  examination,  etc.,  etc.,  might  be  put  without  ex 
aggeration  at  fifty  or  even  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars."  The  amount  mentioned  here  should  not 
stagger  us.  Any  historical  scholar  of  to-day  might 
with  all  sincerity  estimate  the  value  of  his  time  em 
ployed  in  historical  research,  the  expenses  of  journeys 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  205 

to  collect  information,  and  the  money  spent  in  pur 
chasing  books  and  other  printed  matter  at  a  rather 
large  figure.  Bancroft  undoubtedly  spent  more  freely 
than  the  average  man  of  his  day,  and  the  large  collec 
tion  of  manuscripts  he  left,  now  the  property  of  the 
New  York  Public  Library,  is  evidence  of  the  liberality 
with  which  he  collected.  Few  men  of  his  day  were 
able  to  buy  so  freely. 

His  transcripts  were  taken  from  the  public  offices  in 
London,  Paris,  and  Berlin.  While  minister  in  Europe 
he  had  better  facilities  than  any  other  American  had 
been  given,  Sparks  not  excepted,  to  secure  all  that  he 
wanted.  His  reputation  as  historian  had  preceded  him 
and  the  keepers  of  public  archives,  as  well  as  owners  of 
private  collections,  vied  with  one  another  in  giving 
him  all  possible  assistance.  "People  here,"  he  said  on 
leaving  London,  "have  heaped  me  full  of  documents. 
Lord  North's  daughter  gave  me  all  she  had,  and  all 
her  reminiscences  to  boot.  The  Duke  of  Grafton  sent 
to  my  house  a  big  box  holding  the  most  private  papers 
of  the  old  Duke  with  the  key  and  unbounded  license 
to  use  the  contents  at  my  discretion ;  Lord  Dartmouth, 
the  papers  of  his  pious  progenitor  who,  you  remember, 
was  'The  one  who  wears  a  coronet  and  prays.'  Then 
I  have  every  letter  written  to  every  dog  of  a  cutthroat 
that  went  into  the  wilderness  to  set  the  Indians  upon 
us.  What  need  of  many  words?  I  have  nearly  all 
said  or  written  in  London  or  Paris  or  Berlin,  etc.,  etc., 
and  as  far  as  eyesight,  which  these  researches  wasted 


206  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

horribly,  and  money  which  I  have  spent  lavishly, 
would  permit.  And  when  I  get  my  papers  completed, 
and  nicely  bound  with  gilt  edges  at  top  and  nice  gilt 
backs,  I  shall  snap  my  fingers  at  the  whole  of  your 
Whig  party."  * 

While  it  was  to  Bancroft's  credit  that  he  collected 
many  documents  from  abroad,  the  real  test  of  his  merit 
in  connection  with  them  is  the  use  he  made  of  them. 
And  on  this  point  he  is  indicted  by  a  recent  writer  in 
the  following  words : 

"His  researches  for  material  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe 
are  described  by  his  friends  as  the  most  remarkable  ever  made. 
Documents  and  sources  of  information  closed  to  all  others  were, 
we  are  assured,  open  to  him.  But,  strange  to  say,  we  see  no  result 
of  this  in  his  published  work.  Nor  can  any  subsequent  investigator 
profit  by  his  labors ;  the  wondrous  and  mysterious  sources  of  infor 
mation  remain  mysterious ;  and  many  of  his  opinions  are  difficult 
to  support  with  the  evidence  which  the  investigators  are  able  to 
find." 2 

In  temper  this  criticism  is  over-positive,  but  the 
main  accusation,  that  Bancroft  did  not  make  the  best 
use  of  the  material  at  his  disposal,  is  essentially  correct. 
How  a  man  should  have  used  Lord  North's  letters 
without  forming  some  respect  for  the  British  point  of 
view  in  the  revolutionary  controversy  is  difficult  to  see, 
unless  we  are  prepared  to  admit  that  his  historical 
sense  was  subverted  to  national  prejudice. 

1  Howe,  "Life  and  Letters  of  George  Bancroft,"  Vol.  II,  p.  44. 

2  Fisher,  Sydney  G.,  "Myth-making  Process  in  Histories  of  the  American 
Revolution "  ("  Proceedings "  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Vol. 
51,  p.  69). 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  207 

Judging  by  the  slow  rate  at  which  the  volumes  of  the 
"History  "  were  published,  we  must  think  that  Bancroft 
worked  intermittently.  There  were  long  periods  when 
he  could  have  done  little,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  re 
sults.  But  when  occupied  with  one  of  his  volumes  he 
worked  hard  and  steadily.  He  rose  at  an  early  hour, 
frequently  at  five  o'clock,  breakfasted  at  7.30,  and 
worked  steadily  until  luncheon,  which  he  took  at  two. 
In  the  afternoon  he  rode  horseback,  dining  at  seven 
or  half  past  seven.  The  evening  he  gave  up  to  his 
friends,  unless  he  had  an  engagement  abroad.  He 
entertained  with  old-fashioned  courtesy,  and  he  was 
noted  for  his  marked  attention  to  ladies. 

In  Newport  he  had  a  famous  rose  garden,  the  culti 
vation  of  which  he  supervised  himself.  He  was  known 
to  rose-growers  throughout  the  country,  and  a  hand 
some  rose  was  called  the  "George  Bancroft"  in  com 
pliment  to  him.  But  Newport  was  not  favorable  to 
literary  work.  He  came  to  like  it  in  the  last  years  of 
his  life;  but  in  the  middle  years  he  used  to  desert  it 
for  his  house  in  New  York,  where  he  gave  himself  up 
to  his  books.  On  one  of  these  trips  of  seclusion  he 
wrote  to  his  wife:  "Certainly  Newport,  in  contrast 
with  my  life  here,  has  many  superiorities.  But  in  the 
evening  the  quiet  of  my  room  and  the  comfort  of  a  good 
book  were  worth  more  to  me  than  a  game  of  cards 
which  I  never  consent  to  take  in  hand  without  shame 
for  a  waste  of  time."  1 

1  Howe,  "Life  and  Letters  of  Bancroft,"  II,  104. 


208  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Students  of  history  will  be  interested  in  Bancroft's 
method  of  writing.  He  had  blank  books,  quarto  in 
size,  and  gave  a  day  of  the  year  to  each  page.  Then 
he  read  vastly,  setting  down  on  each  page  all  the  events 
that  happened  in  the  year  to  which  it  was  devoted. 
He  let  no  event  slip,  even  putting  in  the  phases  of  the 
moon ;  for  they  sometimes  had  bearing  on  the  actions 
of  men.  When  he  wrote,  these  books  served  as  skeleton 
outlines.  His  mass  of  transcripts  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  indexed,  and  he  probably  relied  on  memory  to 
reproduce  the  ideas  in  them,  using  his  chronological 
arrangement  of  events  to  correct  errors  He  had  an 
unusual  memory,  and  it  is  to  his  credit  that  it  rarely 
failed  him.  Although  he  was  many  times  criticized,  it 
was  generally  for  bad  judgment  rather  than  for  mis 
takes  in  facts. 

Bancroft's  excellent  constitution  and  regular  habits 
served  him  well  for  the  achievement  of  an  active  old 
age.  When  he  resigned  his  post  as  minister  to  Ger 
many,  1874,  he  was  seventy -four  years  old,  and  retired 
because  he  wished  to  pass  his  old  age  quietly.  Yet  he 
lived  nearly  seventeen  years  thereafter,  dying  at  Wash 
ington,  January  17,  1891,  in  the  ninety -first  year  of 
his  age.  Few  Americans  have  won  more  distinction 
while  they  lived,  or  enjoyed  their  popularity  with  less 
diminution  until  the  years  ran  out  to  an  unusual 
length.  Bancroft  was  in  the  full  possession  of  his  fac 
ulties  until  a  few  days  before  the  end,  and  he  continued 
to  receive  the  visits  of  literary  friends  and  admirers 


GEORGE    BANCROFT  209 

until  death  was  at  hand.  In  his  old  age  he  was  looked 
upon,  in  America  and  in  Europe,  as  the  greatest  living 
American  historian;  and  although  others  have  ex 
celled  him  in  several  essential  qualities,  it  is  still  hard 
to  point  to  a  man  who  has  written  our  history  more 
acceptably  to  his  age,  or  who  is  more  likely  to  be 
remembered  in  the  future  as  a  historian. 

Bancroft's  biographer  speaks  of  him  as  "unweary 
ing  in  the  pursuit  of  titanic  labors."  At  the  risk  of 
seeming  repetitious  it  is  worth  while  to  point  out  that  his 
task,  viewed  as  a  whole,  does  not  seem  titanic.  His  first 
volume  was  perhaps  begun  in  1832,  his  last,  the  twelfth, 
was  finished  fifty  years  later,  in  1882.  The  twelve 
volumes,  including  the  "History  of  the  Formation  of 
the  Constitution,"  contain  on  an  average  141,000 
words  each,  or  about  1,700,000  words  in  all.  Rhodes's 
well-known  work  contains  1,410,000  words,  in  seven 
volumes,  and  it  was  written  in  about  sixteen  years. 
The  author,  like  Bancroft,  was  a  man  of  leisure  and  in 
a  position  to  employ  assistance  as  freely  as  it  was 
needed,  and  the  task  was  certainly  not  less  difficult  in 
itself  than  Bancroft's.  Professor  McMaster's  work 
contains  about  2,208,000  words  and  was  completed  in 
about  thirty-five  years,  the  author  being  at  the  same 
time  engaged  in  the  active  work  of  teaching.  Hil- 
dreth's  work,  which  for  accuracy  of  statement  has  stood 
the  test  of  time  better  than  Bancroft's,  contains  about 
1,162,000  words  and  was  probably  written  in  less  than 
ten  years.  If  we  take  out  of  the  fifty  years  which 


210  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

passed  between  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  Ban 
croft's  work  on  his  "History"  the  ten  which  he  gave  to 
his  diplomatic  career,  he  still  appears  as  a  slow  worker  in 
comparison  with  those  other  American  historians  who 
have  a  right  to  be  ranked  in  the  same  circle  with  him.1 

1  THE  BANCROFT  MANUSCRIPT  COLLECTION 

Bancroft's  manuscripts,  originals  and  transcripts,  were  purchased  by 
James  Lenox  in  1893  and  placed  in  the  Lenox  Library,  whence  they  have 
come  into  the  possession  of  the  New  York  Public  Library.  Among  the 
originals  were  the  valuable  Samuel  Adams  Papers,  including:  (a)  letters 
to  Adams  from  revolutionary  leaders,  1300  pieces;  (6)  minutes  of  the 
Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence,  1772-1774 ;  (c)  letters  and  papers 
addressed  to  the  Committee,  1772-1775 ;  and  (d)  notes  and  proceedings  of 
the  Massachusetts  assembly,  1773-1774.  Other  collections  were:  the 
papers  of  Major  Joseph  Hawley,  of  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  1653- 
1789;  the  papers  of  General  Riedesel,  1776-1783;  the  "Anspach  Papers," 
1776-1784;  and  the  "Hessian  Papers." 

The  transcripts  include  two  hundred  and  ten  bound  volumes.  Among 
them  are:  "Papers  from  the  English  State  Papers  Office,"  "Papers  from 
Landsdowne  House,"  "Papers  from  the  French  Archives,"  "Austrian 
Papers,"  "Bertholff  Papers,"  "Bernard  Papers,"  "Brunswick  Papers," 
"  Chalmers  Papers  " —  on  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  and  Rhode  Island, "  Georgia 
Papers,"  "Connecticut  Papers,"  "Correspondence  of  George  III.,"  "Ells 
worth  Papers,"  "Golden  Papers,"  "Glover  Papers,"  "Hartley  Papers," 
"Hollis  Papers,"  "Hutchinson  Papers,"  "  W.  S.  Johnson  Papers,"  "Langdon- 
Elwyn  Papers,"  "Livingston  Papers,"  "Mason  Papers,"  "Marion  Papers," 
"Patterson  Papers,"  "Thomas  Penn  Papers,"  "Rush  Papers,"  "Schuyler 
Papers,"  "Warren  Papers,"  "Wayne  Papers,"  "Strachey  Papers,"  "Stiles 
Papers,"  "Quebec  Papers,"  "Letters  of  Governor  Pownall  to  Dr.  Cooper," 
" President  Folk's  Diary  and  Correspondence,"  "General  Greene's  Letter- 
Book,"  and  several  other  collections. 

For  information  concerning  the  manuscripts  see :  Report  of  the  Lenox 
Library,  1893,  pp.  10-12;  Palsist,  "The  Manuscripts  of  the  New  York 
Public  Library"  (1915),  p.  14;  and  Sabin,  "The  Library  of  the  late  Hon. 
George  Bancroft,"  n.  d.,  about  1892.  In  the  Bulletin  of  the  New  York 
Public  Library,  Vol.  V.,  (July,  1901),  is  a  calendar  of  the  "Manuscript 
Collection  in  the  New  York  Public  Library"  in  which  will  be  found  the 
Bancroft  items  alphabetized  with  other  manuscripts. 


CHAPTER  IV 
TWO  LITERARY  HISTORIANS 
1.    William  Hickling  Prescott 

WILLIAM  HICKLING  PRESCOTT  and  John  Lothrop 
Motley  have  been  discussed  so  often  as  literary  men 
that  here  it  is  not  necessary  to  do  more  than  assign 
them  the  places  they  deserve  in  the  Middle  Group 
of  our  Historians.  Neither  wrote  our  own  history, 
neither  wrote  history  because  he  felt  a  call  to  set 
forth  the  story  of  his  country,  but  each  selected  history 
as  the  form  of  literary  achievement  in  which  he  could 
find  an  attractive  and  appreciated  subject  for  his  power 
of  narration.  Each  wrote  because  it  was  in  him 
to  write,  following  an  impulse  which  we  may  call  pro 
fessional. 

Prescott  and  Motley  belonged  to  a  small  circle  of 
educated  Bostonians,  most  of  them  Harvard  gradu 
ates,  who  made  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
as  brilliant  as  another  group, — in  which  were  Longfellow, 
Lowell,  Holmes,  and  Emerson,  —  made  brilliant  the 
second  half  of  the  same  century.  Of  the  first  group, 
Bancroft,  Sparks,  and  George  Ticknor  were  also 
members.  It  was  a  sane  group,  not  given  to  reforms, 
untouched  by  the  anti-slavery  enthusiasm  which  gave 

211 


AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

a  tone  of  provincialism  to  the  later  group.  For  them 
literature  was  a  profession  in  which  each  man  strove 
to  succeed  for  the  mere  love  of  excelling,  not  for  the 
easing  of  a  conscience  big  with  humanitarian  ideals. 

Prescott  was  born  in  Salem,  May  4,  1796,  but  his 
father,  a  lawyer  of  great  ability,  moved  to  Boston 
in  1808.  In  the  city,  William  early  had  the  run  of  the 
Boston  Athenaeum,  already  rich  in  historical  litera 
ture,  and  he  graduated  from  Harvard  in  1814  with 
distinction,  being,  like  many  other  men  of  old  Har 
vard  who  rose  to  eminence,  only  eighteen  years  old. 
While  a  junior  at  college  one  of  his  eyes  was  injured 
by  a  piece  of  bread  thrown  in  a  boyish  frolic  in  the 
Commons  Hall  with  the  result  that  its  sight  was  com 
pletely  destroyed.  After  graduation  his  other  eye, 
the  right,  developed  inflammation,  heightened  by  in 
flammatory  rheumatism,  and  for  several  years  he 
could  do  nothing  but  nurse  it  most  carefully,  lest  he  be 
left  totally  blind.  A  visit  to  Europe  brought  no  relief, 
and  he  at  last  settled  down  to  a  state  of  half  invalid- 
ism,  sitting  for  weeks  in  a  dark  room,  and  exercising 
systematically  in  order  that  a  good  state  of  general 
health  might  enable  him  to  combat  the  tendency  of 
the  eye  to  deteriorate.  Fortunately,  he  had  ample 
means  to  employ  a  reader  and  keep  up  his  intellectual 
exercises. 

Great  will  power  was  one  of  Prescott's  character 
istics,  and  he  determined  that  his  accident  should  not 
defeat  his  purpose  to  lead  a  useful  life.  He  turned  to 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS  213 

literature  and  directed  his  reading  with  an  idea  of 
laying  the  broadest  foundation  in  the  cultivated 
branches.  Language  was  mastered  as  a  preliminary, 
and  with  it  went  severe  drill  in  the  art  of  literary  ex 
pression.  For  a  time  Italian  literature  fascinated 
him ;  but  at  length  he  settled  upon  history,  which,  he 
said,  had  been  a  favorite  study  from  boyhood. 

While  gathering  up  his  mental  equipment  for  his 
task  he  came  upon  Mably's  essay,  "Sur  TEtude  de 
1'Histoire,"  published  in  1775  for  the  instruction  of 
the  heir  to  the  dukedom  of  Parma.  The  author  had 
many  limitations,  from  the  modern  standpoint;  but 
he  had  penetration  and  laid  great  stress  upon  the  use 
of  dramatic  form  in  presenting  historical  events. 
Prescott  was  much  impressed  and  read  the  book 
through  ten  times.  He  also  studied  carefully  the 
construction  of  Voltaire's  "Charles  XII"  and  Ros- 
coe's  "Lorenzo  de  Medici"  and  "Leo  X". 

In  the  spring  of  1826  he  definitely  settled  on  the 
reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Spain  as  his  sub 
ject,  and  began  to  collect  books  upon  it.  It  was  a 
theme  on  which  he  could  find  in  Spanish  and  French 
a  number  of  good  secondary  works  and  contemporary 
accounts.  Such  as  he  could  buy  were  imported, 
while  some  were  obtained  by  copying  them  in  manu 
script.  He  spared  no  reasonable  expense  in  securing 
his  object.  He  was  fortunate  in  having  a  good  literary 
assistant,  who  came  to  him  every  day  at  ten  and  re 
mained  until  dinner  at  three.  All  this  time  was  spent 


214  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

in  reading,  marking  passages  that  were  deemed  im 
portant,  and  taking  notes.  For  writing  Prescott  used 
a  nocograph,  a  frame  with  wires  stretched  across  like 
the  lines  on  ruled  paper.  Beneath  it  was  a  kind  of 
carbon  paper,  the  black  side  down.  Guiding  his  hand 
with  the  wire  he  wrote  on  the  reverse  of  the  carbon- 
paper  with  an  ivory  stylus,  transferring  the  mark  to  a 
sheet  of  white  paper  underneath.  The  rate  of  progress 
was  slow,  but  at  last  the  book  was  finished  in  three 
volumes  in  1836. 

The  reception  of  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella"  was 
more  favorable  than  could  have  been  expected.  The 
author  had  serious  doubts  about  the  wisdom  of  an 
American  edition,  and  it  was  only  the  strong  urging 
of  his  friends  that  induced  him  to  permit  one  to  be 
brought  out.  To  his  doubts  his  father  said:  "The 
man  who  writes  a  book  which  he  is  afraid  to  publish  is 
a  coward";  and  as  cowardice  was  a  quality  entirely 
foreign  to  the  son's  nature,  the  attempt  was  made.  To 
the  surprise  of  all  concerned  the  book  succeeded  at 
once.  The  city  of  Boston  took  five  hundred  copies, 
before  any  could  be  spared  for  out-of-town  orders; 
and  the  first  edition  of  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  copies, 
which  by  the  terms  of  the  contract  the  publishers  were 
to  have  five  years  to  dispose  of,  were  sold  in  almost  as 
many  months.  This  rapid  success  was  partly  due  to 
the  interest  his  friends  felt  in  the  work.  No  book  was 
ever  more  fortunate  in  its  reviewers.  One  of  them, 
who  had  read  the  proofs  and  advised  about  the  style, 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS  215 

wrote  a  long  review  for  the  North  American  ;  Bancroft 
wrote  for  the  Democratic  Review,  and  still  others  wrote 
for  other  periodicals.  When  the  Boston  coterie  got 
behind  a  book,  it  was  most  likely  to  succeed. 

The  English  edition  was  equally  well  received,  though 
the  sale  abroad  did  not  reach  that  in  America.  The 
British  reviews  gave  it  long  and,  on  the  whole,  favorable 
notices.  The  best  scholar  in  the  field  of  Spanish  his 
tory  then  living  on  the  Continent,  Count  Adolphe  de 
Circourt,  gave  it  a  review  of  more  than  one  hundred 
and  eighty  pages  in  the  Bibliotheque  Universelle  de 
Geneve.  In  every  quarter  Prescott  was  hailed  as  a 
scholar  and  a  charming  writer. 

Encouraged  by  his  success,  he  looked  around  for 
another  subject.  For  a  time  he  thought  of  writing  a 
life  of  Moliere,  which  shows  how  little  he  had  come 
to  look  upon  himself  as  merely  a  historian.  But  the 
general  approval  of  his  efforts  in  the  Spanish  field  led 
him  to  decide  to  write  upon  the  achievements  of  Cortes 
in  Mexico.  With  his  usual  thoroughness  he  sent  to 
Madrid  for  books  and  ordered  copies  of  the  manuscripts 
in  the  Spanish  archives,  which  had  recently  been  opened 
to  students  in  other  countries  than  Spain.  Three 
hundred  pounds  were  sent  to  Madrid  to  be  used  in  this 
quest,  while  liberal  orders  were  placed  in  London. 
While  waiting  for  this  material  to  arrive  he  used  the 
books  he  found  in  the  Harvard  library. 

When  he  was  fairly  at  work,  his  friend,  Joseph 
Green  Cogswell,  in  New  York,  encountered  Washington 


216  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Irving  in  a  New  York  library  collecting  material  for 
the  same  undertaking.  When  Irving  learned  that  Pres- 
cott  was  embarked  on  this  task,  he  generously  retired 
from  the  field.  To  Cogswell  he  said  that  his  work  on 
the  proposed  subject  was  not  well  advanced ;  but  his 
biographer  asserted  years  later  that  Irving' s  efforts 
had  gone  much  further  than,  in  his  courtesy,  he  allowed 
Prescott  to  think.  It  is  rare  that  we  have  in  our 
literary  history  so  noble  an  example  of  an  author's 
self-denial ;  and  it  is  a  fortunate  country  in  the  ranks 
of  whose  historians  are  at  one  time  two  such  men  so 
well  qualified  to  write  brilliantly  about  an  important 
phase  of  history. 

In  the  preface  to  this  work  Prescott  places  a  state 
ment,  quite  casually,  which  may  well  be  a  matter  of 
reflection  for  those  who  would  understand  his  art 
of  presentation.  Referring  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
carried  his  story  beyond  the  capture  of  the  City  of 
Mexico,  which  properly  terminated  the  "Conquest," 
he  says  in  explanation  of  his  course : 

"I  am  not  insensible  of  the  hazard  I  incur  by  such  a  course. 
The  mind,  previously  occupied  with  one  great  idea,  that  of  the 
subversion  of  the  capital,  may  feel  the  prolongation  of  the  story 
beyond  that  point  superfluous,  if  not  tedious;  and  may  find  it 
difficult,  after  the  excitement  caused  by  witnessing  a  great  national 
catastrophe,  to  take  an  interest  in  the  adventures  of  a  private 
individual.  Solis  l  took  the  more  politic  course  of  concluding  his 

1  Antonio  de  Solis  y  Rivadeneyra.  His  "History  of  the  Conquest  of 
Mexico  by  the  Spaniards"  (1684)  was  very  popular  in  Spain  on  account  of 
its  elegant  literary  style.  It  is  not  reliable  for  facts,  as  Prescott  admits. 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS  217 

narrative  with  the  fall  of  Mexico,  and  thus  leaves  his  readers  with 
the  full  impression  of  that  memorable  event,  undisturbed,  on  their 
minds.  To  prolong  the  narrative  is  to  expose  the  historian  to  the 
error  so  much  censured  by  the  French  critics  in  some  of  their  most 
celebrated  dramas,  where  the  author  by  a  premature  denouement 
has  impaired  the  interest  of  his  piece." 

Two  things  are  here  apparent :  first,  Prescott  wrote 
with  his  eye  fixed  on  the  impression  his  writing  would 
have  on  the  attention  of  the  reader;  and  second,  he 
had  a  full  sense  of  the  similarity  of  the  historian's 
and  the  dramatist's  tasks.  Each  craftsman  was  con 
structing  a  narrative  in  which  there  was  unity  of 
thought  and  purpose  moving  to  a  climax. 

Prescott's  delight  in  writing  spirited  and  dramatic 
narrative  was  tried  by  the  necessity,  as  he  deemed  it, 
of  incorporating  at  the  beginning  of  his  book  an 
account  of  the  civilization  of  the  ancient  Mexicans.  It 
was  the  kind  of  didactic  composition  which  is  familiar 
enough  to  modern  students  of  history,  who  may  well 
study  his  book  to  see  how  it  can  be  done  without  becom 
ing  tedious  to  the  reader.  Although  Prescott  accepted 
the  prevailing  Spanish  theory  that  the  Mexicans  were 
more  advanced  in  ideas  and  manners  than  we  are 
to-day  willing  to  admit,  and  gave  to  his  story  a  charac 
ter  that  is  now  practically  worthless,  his  account  of 
early  Mexican  life  is  a  model  of  good  form  and  enter 
taining  reading.  He  said  that  it  cost  him  as  much 
labor  and  nearly  as  much  time  as  the  rest  of  the 
book,  although  it  filled  only  half  of  one  of  his  three 
volumes. 


218  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

The  "Conquest  of  Mexico"  was  published  in  1843, 
five  years  after  he  had  begun  to  investigate  the  subject. 
For  three  of  these  years  he  had  worked  most  unre 
mittingly,  a  thing  he  was  able  to  do  through  a  marked 
improvement  of  his  eye.  It  was  with  no  doubts  that 
he  awaited  the  verdict  of  the  public ;  for  he  was  now  of 
established  reputation,  and  he  knew  the  cunning  of  his 
own  hand.  But  he  could  not  have  been  ready  for  the 
outburst  of  applause  that  came  from  reviewers  and 
friends.  The  sales  were  large.  Five  thousand  copies 
were  disposed  of  in  the  United  States  in  four  months, 
and  an  English  edition  went  off  in  six.  Edition  after 
edition  was  called  for  as  the  years  passed,  and  it  was 
a  long  time  before  the  book  ceased  to  be  a  popular 
favorite. 

Allowing  himself  a  short  period  of  rest,  "literary 
loafing"  he  called  it,  Fresco tt  now  turned  to  the  "Con 
quest  of  Peru."  Here,  also,  he  introduced  the  narrative 
with  a  study  of  social  conditions  in  old  Peru.  A  large 
collection  of  books  on  the  subject,  imported  from 
Europe,  furnished  him  with  the  necessary  materials. 
At  times  he  worked  with  great  intenseness.  In  fact, 
he  was  so  persistent  that  he  strained  his  eye,  and  the 
latter  part  of  the  task  was  done  chiefly  with  the  aid 
of  an  assistant.  The  book  was  completed  late  in  1846 
and  was  published  in  the  spring  of  1847.  A  new  book 
by  Prescott  was  now  an  event.  The  "Conquest  of 
Peru"  had  an  immediate  success  equal  to  that  of  its 
predecessors.  In  five  months  five  thousand  copies 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS  219 

were  sold  in  the  United  States,  and  half  as  many 
in  Great  Britain.  It  was  translated  into  French, 
German,  Spanish,  and  Dutch. 

Prescott  closed  his  series  of  works  on  the  Spanish 
relations  with  a  "History  of  Philip  the  Second,"  for 
which  he  had  begun  to  gather  materials  as  early  as 
1842.  He  advanced  to  the  actual  performance  of  the 
task  in  1847,  the  year  after  he  had  completed  the 
"Peru."  Here,  as  in  writing  the  "Mexico,"  he 
learned  that  he  was  in  conflict  with  another  man. 
Motley,  then  looking  about  for  a  historical  subject, 
had  hit  upon  the  same  theme.  Fortunately,  he 
learned  of  Prescott's  plans  before  beginning  serious 
labor.  Then  followed  an  interview  between  the 
two  men,  Prescott  urging  Motley  to  go  on  with  his 
plans,  saying  that  there  was  room  for  two  books  on 
the  same  subject  and  offering  the  use  of  his  library 
and  manuscripts.  Motley  was  deeply  impressed  with 
his  kindness,  but  was  able  to  give  his  own  efforts  to 
only  a  part  of  what  might  have  been  considered  the 
career  of  Philip,  that  part  which  related  to  his  dealing 
with  the  Low  Countries. 

Prescott,  in  the  meantime,  went  on  slowly  with  his 
work.  In  no  part  of  his  labors  was  he  more  hampered 
by  his  eyesight.  Many  days  he  could  use  the  one  eye 
that  could  yield  any  comfort  for  not  more  than  ten 
minutes,  and  never  for  more  than  an  hour.  He  wrote 
the  book,  as  he  himself  said,  under  the  conditions  in 
which  a  blind  man  must  have  written  it.  Depressed  by 


220  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

this  phase  of  the  matter,  he  found  it  difficult  to  lose 
himself  in  the  task.  His  feelings  reacted  on  his  gen 
eral  health,  he  lost  flesh,  and  those  closest  to  him 
had  serious  fears  for  his  condition.  They  at  last  per 
suaded  him  to  give  up  the  work  for  a  time  and  make  a 
journey  to  Europe.  Most  of  1850  was  spent  in  Eng 
land  and  in  a  flying  trip  to  the  Continent;  and  he 
returned  home  in  excellent  spirits.  He  now  worked 
with  real  enthusiasm;  and  in  1855  he  published  the 
first  two  volumes.  Work  on  the  third  volume  pro 
ceeded  slowly  on  account  of  decreasing  strength. 
February  4,  1858,  when  it  was  nearing  completion,  he 
was  stricken  with  apoplexy  and  for  several  days 
the  gravest  consequences  were  feared.  His  system, 
however,  responded  to  treatment,  and  in  a  few  weeks  he 
was  again  able  to  resume  work.  But  the  attack  had 
given  him  fair  warning  of  what  he  might  expect,  and 
he  hastened  to  finish  the  volume,  leaving  off  some  of 
the  finishing  touches  he  would  otherwise  have  given  it. 
Late  in  the  summer  the  third  volume  was  sent  to  the 
press.  A  fourth,  which  was  within  his  plan,  was  never 
completed.  In  fact,  his  working  life  was  over.  After 
a  few  months  of  slowly  weakening  powers  his  frame 
gave  way  before  a  second  stroke  of  apoplexy  that  came 
upon  him  just  as  he  was  beginning  his  work  for  the 
fourth  volume.  He  died  on  January  28,  1859. 

Every  age  has  its  historical  ideals  just  as  it  has  its 
political  ideals.  In  Prescott's  time  the  world  liked  the 
narrative  form  best  of  all.  He  was  a  part  of  his  age. 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS 

It  was  no  clever  trick  of  hitting  that  which  was  popular 
that  made  him  seek  to  tell  a  story  well,  but  a  conviction 
shared  by  all  other  historians  of  the  day,  that  history 
was  one  of  the  literary  arts.  He  believed  intensely  in 
the  school  to  which  he  belonged.  As  for  truth,  he  was 
not  indifferent  to  it ;  and  he  delved  patiently  and  con 
scientiously  into  the  great  mass  of  information  before 
him.  That  he  was  not  critical  in  the  modern  sense 
was  due  to  the  ideals  of  the  time. 

His  manner  of  work  was  very  systematic.  All  his 
forenoons  were  at  his  disposal  and  the  first  hours  of 
the  afternoons.  He  used  them  conscientiously,  when 
he  was  in  the  working  mood.  But  he  was,  like  many 
another  historian,  subject  to  fits  of  listlessness,  from 
which  he  sought  by  many  devices  to  rally  himself. 
His  "Memoranda,"  a  kind  of  diary  of  his  literary 
progress  kept  at  intervals,  was  made  the  confidant  of 
many  tricks  set  to  induce  himself  to  live  up  to  his  good 
resolutions.  When  once  the  fits  were  over  and  interest 
in  the  present  task  aroused,  he  worked  with  happy 
steadiness.  He  was  very  human  and  was  apt  to  take 
his  friends  into  his  confidence  in  regard  to  all  his 
fancied  shortcomings.  In  George  Ticknor,  the  noted 
professor  of  Spanish  literature  at  Harvard,  he  had  a 
very  sympathetic  and  useful  friend;  and,  as  it  hap 
pened,  a  most  enlightening  biographer.  No  historian 
who  feels  the  need  of  impulse  to  keep  him  up  to  his 
own  task  can  do  better  than  read  Ticknor 's  "Life  of 
William  H.  Prescott." 


222  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Prescott's  financial  independence  was  of  great  ad 
vantage  in  his  work.  It  enabled  him  to  secure  books, 
to  have  manuscripts  copied,  and  to  employ  assistants 
who  read  for  him.  In  our  own  day  great  libraries  and 
large  manuscript  collections  offer  the  poorer  student 
that  which  wealth  alone  could  acquire  a  century  ago, 
and  simple  living  may  equalize  many  other  evils  of 
poverty.  Not  every  rich  man  uses  his  wealth  as  Pres- 
cott.  It  was  his  glory  that  being  able  to  give  himself 
to  a  life  of  pleasure,  with  the  excuse  of  poor  health  to 
reconcile  himself  to  self-indulgence,  he  never  compro 
mised  with  such  a  temptation  and  always  lived  as 
though  life  had  as  much  an  obligation  for  him  as  for 
anybody. 

It  is  an  interesting  speculation  as  to  how  much  he 
was,  under  the  circumstances,  hindered  and  how  much 
benefited  by  his  defective  eyesight.  While  it  made  it 
impossible  for  him  to  use  his  eyes  in  long  periods,  it 
took  from  him,  on  the  other  hand,  a  vast  amount  of 
the  social  frivolity  which  is  thrust  on  any  but  the 
most  heroic  men  under  normal  conditions.  Prescott's 
partial  blindness  left  him  free  to  devote  most  of  his 
available  energy  to  his  chosen  field.  It  perhaps  served, 
also,  to  develop  the  habit  of  concentration.  When  a 
man  knows  that  he  has  only  an  hour  to  write  in  a  day, 
he  is  apt  to  make  that  hour  express  the  most  exact 
and  telling  thought  of  the  whole  day.  By  throwing 
much  work  on  the  memory  that  faculty  was  strength 
ened.  During  the  periods  of  enforced  inactivity  he 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS 

developed  his  ideas  and  thus  matured  in  his  own  mind 
what  he  meant  ,to  write  down. 

2.  John  Lothrop  Motley 

As  Prescott  vanished  from  the  scene  of  activities 
John  Lothrop  Motley  was  just  coming  upon  it.  He 
too,  was  of  Boston,  son  of  a  wealthy  merchant  and 
born  to  the  best  things  that  the  city  could  give.  He 
was  prepared  for  college  at  the  celebrated  Round  Hill 
School,  in  Northampton,  entered  Harvard  in  1827,  and 
graduated  in  1831,  when  seventeen  years  old.  From 
1832  to  1834  he  was  a  student  at  Gottingen  and  Berlin, 
and  returned  to  Boston  to  read  law,  a  study  for  which 
he  had  little  liking.  From  early  life  he  was  given  to 
literary  efforts,  and  soon  threw  aside  thoughts  of  being 
a  lawyer  to  attempt  to  win  fame  writing  novels.  His 
first  story,  "Morton's  Hope,"  was  full  of  his  personal 
feelings  and  traced  his  career  in  Europe  with  fair  ac 
curacy,  but  it  lacked  plot  and  as  a  story  it  was  a 
failure. 

We  think  of  Motley,  as  of  Prescott,  as  a  literary 
historian.  He  was  brought  up  in  a  school  that  loved 
poetry  and  was  acquainted  with  the  great  master 
pieces.  He  had  read  much  and  his  mind  teemed  with 
quotations,  but  his  novels  failed  because  his  plots 
were  poor.  In  history  he  had  a  plot  ready  made,  and 
he  used  his  imagination  in  rounding  out  the  plot, 
marshaling  the  facts  in  picturesque  array,  drawing 
vivid  character  pictures,  and  adjusting  the  scenes  so 


224  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

as  to  present  a  wonderful  picture.  Richness  and 
warmth  of  color,  and  strong  passions,  were  there,  and 
always  a  deep  sympathy  with  human  life.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  no  adequate  biography  of  the  man  has 
been  written.  The  volumes  of  his  letters  that  have 
been  published  seem  to  be  more  concerned  with  show 
ing  what  fine  company  Motley  kept  than  with  revealing 
the  manner  in  which  he  mastered  his  craft.  It  is  as  an 
historian,  and  not  as  a  man  of  the  world  that  Motley 
interests  us.  This  sketch  can  do  no  more  than  enu 
merate  his  efforts  in  history  and  give  the  reader  an 
inkling  of  what  awaits  him  when  the  proper  life  of  the 
man  is  written. 

In  1841,  Motley  was  appointed  secretary  of  legation 
at  Petrograd  (St.  Petersburg),  but  the  life  at  court  dis 
gusted  him  and  he  resigned  in  a  few  months.  In  1849 
he  was  elected  member  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of 
Representatives,  but  one  term  in  that  body  convinced 
him  that  he  was  no  politician.  In  the  same  year  he 
published  another  novel,  "Merry  Mount,"  written 
several  years  earlier,  but  its  reception  was  dismal.  At 
this  time  the  only  things  he  had  done  with  real  suc 
cess  were  some  historical  and  biographical  essays  for 
the  North  American  Review,  in  which  he  had  shown 
some  of  the  qualities  which  were  later  to  make  him 
famous.  Taking  stock  of  his  achievements,  he  seems 
to  have  concluded  that  here  was  the  trail  worth  follow 
ing,  and  he  gave  himself  to  history  for  better  or  worse. 
He  was  much  influenced  by  the  success  of  Prescott, 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS  225 

then  at  the  height  of  his  renown.  Turned  aside,  as 
we  have  seen,  from  the  life  of  Philip  the  Second,  he 
took  up  the  field  of  Dutch  history.  It  pleased  him 
as  the  struggle  of  a  democratic  people  against  absolute 
power.  It  was  full  of  dramatic  incidents,  as  all  history 
is  full,  when  the  right  man  comes  to  seek  them.  To 
get  first-hand  information  he  went  to  the  Low  Coun 
tries  in  1851,  settling  finally  in  Brussels,  where  he 
buried  himself  in  libraries  and  document  offices.  After 
several  months  in  the  place  he  could  say  that  he  did 
not  know  a  soul  in  Brussels.  But  he  knew  well  the 
city's  past.  "The  dead  men  of  the  place,"  he  said, 
"are  my  intimate  friends.  I  am  at  home  in  any 
cemetery.  With  the  fellows  of  the  sixteenth  century 
I  am  on  the  most  familiar  terms.  Any  ghost  that  ever 
flits  by  night  across  the  moonlight  square  is  at  once 
hailed  by  me  as  a  man  and  a  brother.  I  call  him  by 
his  Christian  name  at  once." 

In  1856  he  was  ready  to  publish  the  result  of  his 
labor,  the  "Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,"  in  three  vol 
umes.  He  offered  the  manuscript  to  Murray,  the 
leading  London  publisher,  who  refused  it.  Not 
daunted  he  brought  it  out  with  another  firm  at  his  own 
expense,  arranging  for  an  American  edition  at  the 
same  time.  The  immediate  success  of  the  book  was  so 
great  that  Murray  wrote,  acknowledging  his  mistake, 
and  asking  to  be  allowed  to  publish  the  author's  next 
work.  Froude,  himself  a  great  stylist,  said  in  review 
ing  the  book:  "All  the  essentials  of  a  great  writer 


226  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Mr.  Motley  eminently  possesses.  His  mind  is  broad, 
his  industry  unwearied.  In  power  of  dramatic  de 
scription  no  modern  historian,  except  perhaps  Mr. 
Carlyle,  surpasses  him,  and  in  analysis  of  character  he 
is  elaborate  and  distinct.  His  principles  are  those  of 
honest  love  for  all  which  is  good  and  admirable  in 
human  character  wherever  he  finds  it,  while  he  un 
affectedly  hates  oppression,  and  despises  selfishness 
with  all  his  heart."  Francis  Lieber  praised  the  book 
highly  and  said :  "It  will  leave  its  distinct  mark  upon 
the  American  mind." 

In  1858  Motley  returned  to  Europe  from  a  visit  to 
the  United  States.  A  brilliant  social  reception  over 
whelmed  him,  but  he  soon  fled  to  his  historical  materials 
on  the  Continent.  His  plans  had  now  taken  definite 
shape,  and  he  announced  them  to  his  friends.  He 
would,  he  said,  write  a  history  of  "The  Eighty  Years' 
War  for  Liberty, "in  three  epochs.  The  first  was  the 
"Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,"  the  second  he  would 
call  "Independence  Achieved,"  1584-1609,  and  the 
third  would  be  "Independence  Recognized,"  1609- 
1648.  This  grand  scheme  would  cut  a  cross  section 
in  the  history  of  Europe  at  one  of  its  most  interesting 
and  turbulent  stages.  The  scheme  was  not  carried 
out  as  formed. 

Two  years  after  his  return  —  in  1860  —  the  world 
received  the  first  two  volumes  of  the  "History  of  the 
United  Netherlands."  Later  in  the  same  year,  the 
author  hired  a  house  in  London,  with  the  intention  of 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS 

going  on  with  his  work.  But  the  outbreak  of  the  civil 
war  brought  him  back  to  his  native  land,  where,  to 
his  surprise,  he  suddenly  found  himself  packed  off  to 
Europe  again,  this  time  as  minister  to  Austria.  The 
great  struggle  at  home  absorbed  his  interest,  and 
literary  labors  advanced  slightly  until  it  was  evident 
victory  was  turning  to  the  side  of  the  Union.  In  his 
letters  he  spoke  longingly  of  his  desire  to  get  back  to 
the  Dutchmen  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

He  remained  in  Vienna  until  1866,  when  he  resigned 
in  a  burst  of  sensitive  anger  called  forth  by  an  irre 
sponsible  accusation.  A  letter  arrived  in  Washing 
ton  from  one  who  called  himself  an  American  citizen 
traveling  in  Europe,  containing  coarse  charges  against 
several  diplomatic  representatives  of  the  govern 
ment  in  Europe.  Motley  was  charged  with  being  a 
toady  to  aristocrats,  and  with  criticizing  the  President, 
Andrew  Johnson.  Secretary  Seward  wrote  to  Mot 
ley  asking  for  a  denial  of  the  charges.  The  latter  took 
this  communication  as  an  insult.  He  felt  that  his 
government  had  lost  confidence  in  him,  and  sent  his 
resignation  forthwith. 

Two  years  later,  1868,  he  published  the  third  and 
fourth  volumes  of  the  "History  of  the  United  Nether 
lands."  To  his  friends  he  announced  that  he  would 
proceed  at  once  with  the  history  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  and  with  this  his  life-work  would  be  over.  But 
he  was  not  to  fulfill  the  promise.  Returning  the  same 
year  to  Boston  he  was  appointed  in  the  following  year 


228  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

minister  to  Great  Britain  and  left  for  the  post  at 
once.  Of  the  controversy  that  arose  over  his  recall  in 
1870,  this  sketch  is  too  short  to  take  full  notice. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  it  is  generally  held  that 
President  Grant,  angered  at  Senator  Sumner's  opposi 
tion  to  his  Santo  Domingo  treaty,  sought  to  humili 
ate  the  Massachusetts  senator  by  removing  Motley, 
his  friend,  from  office.  The  grounds  alleged  were 
some  indiscreet  actions  of  Motley's  in  negotiations 
that  were  past  more  than  a  year  and  which  Motley 
had  every  reason  to  think  were  condoned  and  for 
gotten.  It  is  hard  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  he  was 
the  object  of  very  illiberal  treatment. 

Deeply  wounded  in  his  feelings,  Motley  turned  to 
his  pen  for  consolation.  He  worked  with  steadiness 
and  pleasure  on  his  great  scheme,  and  in  1874  gave  to 
the  public  the  "Life  and  Death  of  John  of  Barneveld, 
Advocate  of  Holland;  with  a  view  of  the  primary 
Causes  and  Movements  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War." 
It  was  something  of  a  digression  from  his  main  ob 
ject,  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  but  he  was  interested  in 
the  career  of  the  man,  and  he  convinced  himself  that 
its  importance  justified  its  rather  lengthy  insertion 
in  his  grand  series.  It  was  a  splendid  picture  of  a 
man's  career,  vivid,  unified  and  full  of  force. 

Motley  would  now  have  gone  on  with  the  last 
part  of  his  scheme.  Work  was  the  only  solace  left 
him  after  the  unhappy  ending  of  his  diplomatic  career. 
But  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  in  which  "Barneveld" 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS  229 

was  published,  1874,"  Mrs.  Motley  died.  He  was 
deeply  attached  to  her,  who  had  been  a  companion 
in  all  he  did,  and  his  sensitive  nature  did  not  recover 
from  the  shock.  Returning  the  following  year  to 
Boston  on  a  visit,  in  which  the  influence  of  former 
scenes  did  nothing  to  restore  his  spirits,  he  went 
back  to  London  to  await  the  end.  He  died  near 
Dorchester,  England,  in  1877. 

As  a  literary  man  Motley  must  be  considered  the 
last  prominent  historian  of  the  early  school,  or  the 
first  of  the  newer  school  of  scientific  research.  He 
belonged  to  one  or  the  other,  as  you  will.  He  was 
modern  in  the  deep  devotion  he  showed  for  research. 
No  document  was  too  old  or  difficult  to  balk  his  patient 
inspection.  No  one  ever  delved  deeper  in  archives  nor 
knocked  more  persistently  at  the  closed  doors  of  record 
offices,  pounding  generally  until  they  were  opened. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  had  not  the  modern  historian's 
sense  of  detachment.  He  frankly  took  sides.  He 
hated  the  absolute  government  of  the  Spanish  mon 
archy,  he  disliked  the  dogmas  of  the  Roman  church, 
and  he  could  not  abide  the  repressive  spirit  of  the  Ro 
man  hierarchy.  His  histories  were  Protestant  through 
and  through.  He  drew  Philip  the  Second  as  black  as 
he  could,  but  no  blacker  than  Protestants  have  drawn 
him  through  many  decades.  Motley  was  a  one-sided 
historian. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  his  one-sidedness  was  utterly 
discreditable.  It  undoubtedly  puts  him  out  of  the 


230  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

ranks  of  the  moderns.  He  cannot  be  called  scientific. 
But  what  he  lost  in  balance  he  gained  in  intentness. 
Happy  the  historian,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  who 
has  no  need  to  weigh  evidence  pro  and  con.  For  him 
the  steady  rush  of  narration,  the  flicker  of  light  and 
shade  in  delicate  shimmers  when  needed,  or  in  rich 
bands  of  gorgeous  color  when  the  wizard  who  manipu 
lates  the  brush  thinks  they  are  essential  to  his  pic 
ture.  For  him  also  the  applause  of  a  broad  public. 
American  education,  universal  though  it  be,  has  not 
yet  resulted  in  an  average  man  who  is  capable  of 
balanced  thought  on  important  historical  matters. 
The  historian  of  the  future  may  have  the  happy  fortune 
of  knowing  that  his  detached  history  will  find  a  just 
appreciation  from  a  detached  public.  At  present 
we  are  in  a  seemingly  transitional  stage.  He  who  is 
venturesome  enough  to  write  a  book,  dares  not  make 
it  the  defense  of  any  particular  view,  lest  he  perish  at 
the  hands  of  the  critics ;  nor  does  he  relish  displeasing 
the  public,  since  in  so  doing  he  may  die  of  malnutri 
tion.  His  only  refuge  is  to  flee  to  the  house  of  the 
pedagogue,  where  food  and  raiment  at  least  may 
be  had. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  aptly  compares  Motley's 
style  to  Rubens'  paintings.  "There  is  a  certain 
affinity,"  he  says,  "between  those  sumptuous  and 
glowing  works  of  art  and  the  prose  pictures  of  the 
historian  who  so  admired  them.  He  was  himself 
a  colorist  in  language,  and  called  up  the  image  of  a 


TWO    LITERARY    HISTORIANS 

great  personage  or  a  splendid  pageant  of  the  past 
with  the  same  affluence,  the  same  rich  vitality,  that 
floods  and  warms  the  vast  areas  of  canvas  over  which 
the  full-fed  genius  of  Rubens  disported  itself  in  the 
luxury  of  imaginative  creation."  The  words  are  well 
chosen.  Motley  was  a  colorist.  His  compositions 
were  large  and  well  lit  up  with  line  and  pigment. 
If  it  is  the  simple  and  strong  feeling  of  Jean  Frangois 
Millet  that  you  like,  do  not  look  for  it  here.  The 
Dutchman  painted  religious  and  royal  scenes,  the 
American  portrayed  religious  and  courtly  struggles. 
Saints,  princes,  and  courtiers  fill  the  canvas  of  the 
one ;  theologians,  rulers,  and  diplomatists  fill  the  pages 
of  the  other. 

As  for  me,  I  prefer  the  less  magnificent  portrayals 
of  Prescott.  Here  are  heroes  also,  hidalgos  and  stark 
warriors,  but  they  do  not  march  in  gangs.  Each 
man  stands  out  in  simple  outlines,  and  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  what  he  is  doing.  Prescott,  also,  was  more 
direct  in  his  language  and  more  symmetrical  in  his 
chapter  constructions.  I  get  lost  at  times  in  the  mazes 
of  courtly  intrigue  that  Motley  reproduces,  and  I 
cannot  help  feeling  that  somehow  Prescott  would 
have  found  a  way  of  cutting  vistas  through  them, 
so  that  I  could  see  my  way  ahead. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  the  books  of  the  more  popu 
lar  historians  of  the  middle  group  without  having  a 
feeling  of  admiration  for  their  careful  mastery  of  the 
arts  of  narration.  No  living  man  of  the  new  school 


232  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

has  won,  or  is  likely  to  win,  as  much  success  as  they  won 
in  their  day.  We  could  not  go  back  to  their  school  - 
that  would  be  retrogressing;  but  if  we  could  only 
bring  forward  their  best  qualities  into  our  own  group 
of  scholarly  and  conscientious  workers,  the  results 
would  be  well  worth  the  effort. 


CHAPTER  V 

PETER  FORCE,  THE  COMPILER 
1.    H is  Early  Career 

PETER  FORCE  was  born  of  poor  parents  at  Passaic 
Falls,  New  Jersey,  November  26,  1790.  Three  years 
later  the  family  moved  to  the  town  of  New  York, 
where  the  boy  got  such  a  smattering  of  education  as 
was  then  offered  in  the  schools  of  the  poor.  His 
father  died  soon  afterwards,  and  Peter  at  about  the 
age  of  twelve  entered  the  printing  office  of  William 
Davis,  a  man  of  enough  local  importance  to  become 
an  alderman.  Davis's  establishment  was  at  Blooming- 
dale,  about  five  miles  north  of  the  Battery ;  and  the 
small  village  was  rich  in  Dutch  traditions.  Steady  hab 
its,  industry,  and  the  faculty  of  accepting  responsibility 
made  young  Force  a  marked  boy  among  the  in 
mates  of  the  shop,  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  a 
foreman. 

A  story  of  this  early  period  of  his  life  represents 
him  as  sent,  while  still  a  printer's  boy,  to  carry  to 
the  author  the  proof  of  the  revised  edition  of  Irving's 
"Knickerbocker  History  of  New  York."  Sitting  by 
the  roadside  to  read  the  fascinating  story,  he  came 
to  a  place  in  which  the  author  had  mentioned  some 

233 


234  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

typical  Dutch  families.  In  the  margin  Peter  wrote 
several  other  names,  gathered  from  his  observations 
in  Bloomingdale,  and  Irving  allowed  them  to  stand. 
Many  years  later  Force  met  Irving  and  told  him  to 
whom  he  was  indebted  for  this  bit  of  literary  collabora 
tion.  So  runs  the  story,  which  Lossing  says  he  had 
from  Force  himself.  It  is  somewhat  spoiled  by  the 
fact  that  "Knickerbocker"  was  first  published  in 
December,  1809,  and  the  second  edition,  published  in 
New  York,  appeared  in  1812.  At  that  time  Peter 
Force  was  twenty-two  years  old,  and  had  been  nearly 
six  years  head  of  the  printing  shop.  He  was  hardly 
likely  to  be  sent  back  and  forth  with  proof  at  that  age.1 
The  year  1812  brought  him  an  honor  still  more 
significant  in  his  election  to  the  presidency  of  the 
Typographical  Society  of  New  York.  Such  an  eleva 
tion  to  high  rank  of  a  man  of  twenty-two  indicates 
that  he  had  the  power  of  leadership.  He  was  equally 
earnest  in  the  militia  of  New  York  and  during  the  war 
served  two  tours  of  duty  of  three  months  each.  Here 
also,  he  inspired  confidence,  and  in  1815,  after  having 
served  as  a  sergeant  and  sergeant-major,  he  was  com 
missioned  ensign,  and  in  the  following  year  was  lieu 
tenant  of  militia. 

1  March  29,  1812,  Irving  wrote  Brevoort  that  he  had  made  a  bargain 
with  Inskeep,  to  bring  out  the  revised  edition  and  said  he  was  "about  pub 
lishing."  He  was  then  living  with  Mrs.  Ryckman,  on  Broadway,  near 
Bowling  Green,  where  Brevoort  had  also  lived  until  a  few  months  previously 
he  had  left  for  Europe.  During  the  summer,  however,  Irving  resided  near 
Hellgate  for  a  few  weeks.  See  Pierre  M.  Irving,  "Life  and  Letters  of 
Washington  Irving,"  I,  281,  283. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        235 

In  the  latter  year  his  scene  of  activity  shifted.  His 
employer,  Davis,  had  political  influence,  and  being 
awarded  a  contract  for  a  part  of  the  printing  of  the 
federal  government  found  it  advisable  to  open  a  shop 
in  Washington  City.  He  sent  Force  to  take  charge 
of  the  enterprise,  and  immediately,  or  soon  after 
wards,  the  new  office  was  conducted  under  the  firm 
name  of  Davis  and  Force. 

By  nature  Peter  Force  was  not  suited  to  play  the 
part  of  government  printer.  He  was  a  man  of  down 
right  principles,  outspoken,  and  unwilling  to  bend  to 
the  winds  of  party  favor.  He  was  such  a  man  as 
would  take  a  dominant  position  in  whatever  group  he 
made  a  part,  and  he  would  not  follow  orders. 

All  through  his  residence  in  Washington  he  was 
active  in  local  affairs.  He  became  as  prominent  in  the 
militia  of  the  District  of  Columbia  as  he  had  been 
in  New  York.  Promotions  came  in  due  time.  He 
was  a  captain  of  artillery  in  1824,  a  lieutenant- 
colonel  in  1830,  a  colonel  of  artillery  in  1840,  and 
a  major-general  of  militia  in  1860.  Throughout  his 
later  career  he  was  generally  known  as  "Colonel 
Force."  At  the  same  time  that  he  rose  in  the  militia 
he  rose  in  local  politics.  He  was  elected  to  the  city 
council  in  1832,  and  soon  afterwards  became  its  presi 
dent.  Next  he  became  an  alderman  and  president 
of  the  board  of  aldermen;  and  in  1836  he  became 
mayor,  holding  the  position  for  four  years.  These 
successes  were  based  on  his  popularity  with  the  masses 


236  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  was  a  self-made  man  of 
fine  natural  parts,  and  the  people  felt  that  he  was  one 
of  them.  One  who  had  received  better  educational 
advantages,  or  who  was  born  to  higher  rank,  would 
probably  have  been  little  interested  in  the  honors 
which  Washington  politics  and  militia  service  could  have 
bestowed.  In  a  city  like  the  national  capital  he  would 
probably  have  aspired  to  fill  some  high  federal  office. 

Force's  love  of  books  was  another  phase  of  his 
character,  and  with  advancing  years  it  came  to  rule 
all  other  desires.  When  still  a  boy  he  is  said  to  have 
written  "The  Unwritten  History  of  the  War  in  New 
Jersey,"  a  collection  of  revolutionary  stories  he  had 
heard  at  the  fireside  of  his  father,  who  was  a  revolu 
tionary  soldier.  The  manuscript  was  lost  before  the 
boy  was  old  enough  to  put  it  into  type,  but  writing 
it  shows  the  bent  of  his  mind  from  his  earliest  years. 

His  next  literary  project,  it  seems,  was  a  literary 
journal,  the  prospectus  for  which  was  dated  December 
6,  1817.  It  was  to  be  known  as  The  American  Quar 
terly  Review,  and  the  first  number,  announced  for 
April,  1818,  was  to  contain  articles  on  General  Wil 
kinson's  "Memoirs"  and  Wirt's  "Life  of  Patrick 
Henry,"  besides  a  history  of  the  proceedings  and  de 
bates  of  the  first  session  of  the  fifteenth  congress. 
The  enterprise  was  rashly  planned  and  it  seems  that 
the  first  number  did  not  appear,  although  the  pro 
spectus  was  inserted  in  the  National  Intelligencer, 
January  3,  1818. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        237 

In  1820-1828  Force  compiled  and  published  the 
"Biennial  Register,"  a  book  brought  out  by  order  of 
congress  with  the  names  of  public  officials  and  much 
information  about  the  machinery  of  the  government. 
Force  changed  the  name  to  the  "Blue  Book."  1  In  the 
same  year  he  began  to  publish,  on  his  own  account,  the 
"National  Calendar  and  Annals  of  the  United  States." 
It  contained  matter  so  much  like  that  of  the  "Blue 
Book"  as  to  suggest  that  he  merely  enlarged  the  gov 
ernment  document  by  the  addition  of  other  matter 
and  published  it  with  a  change  of  title.  The  "Calen 
dar"  was  issued  annually,  until  1838,2  with  the  excep 
tion  of  the  years  1825,  1826,  and  1827.  It  contained 
statistics  of  both  federal  and  state  affairs. 

In  1823  Force  established  the  National  Journal, 
for  several  years  an  influential  newspaper  in  the  capi 
tal.  A  prospectus,  dated  August,  1823,  announced 
that  the  paper  would  be  issued  twice  a  week,  with  a 
weekly  "Extra,"  containing  congressional  debates, 
reports,  and  laws.  The  prospectus  was  unsigned, 
but  it  directed  that  communications  relating  to  the 
enterprise  be  sent  to  Davis  and  Force,  printers  and 
stationers.  In  August,  1824,  the  paper  became  a  daily. 
From  the  first  it  was  an  Adams  organ,  although  its 
editor  had  furnished  all  the  money  for  its  establish 
ment.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  most  independent  party 

1  See  an  article  from  the  Round  Table,  reprinted  in  the  Historical  Maga 
zine,  IX,  pp.  335-338  (1865). 

2  So  says  Sabin,  but  I  have  found  no  set  that  goes  further  than  1836. 
—  AUTHOR. 


AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

paper,  and  the  Adams  leaders  were  disappointed  at  its 
lack  of  fervor.  Several  of  them  held  a  meeting  to 
determine  what  was  to  be  done.  They  finally  sent 
one  of  their  number  to  suggest  that  the  editor  should 
allow  a  committee  of  his  friends  to  assist  him  in  his 
editorial  labors.  When  the  cautious  emissary  dropped 
the  first  hint  of  his  plan,  Force  said  with  decision : 
"But  I  do  not  suppose  any  gentleman  would  make 
such  a  proposition  to  me !  "  The  messenger  retreated 
as  gracefully  as  he  could,  and  nothing  further  was  said 
about  the  plan  to  put  the  editorship  in  commission. 
In  1830  Force  retired  from  the  conduct  of  the  paper, 
which  suspended  publication  soon  afterwards.  At 
that  time  the  Adams  party  was  a  thing  of  the  past. 
Clay's  more  energetic  and  less  conservative  leadership 
demanded  a  more  partisan  organ  than  Force  was 
capable  of  conducting. 

Force  is  sometimes  said  to  have  published  the  "Di 
rectory  of  Congress,"  but  he  seems  to  have  had  no 
other  connection  with  it  than  to  print  it.  This  enter 
prise  goes  back  as  early  as  1809,  when  there  began  a 
series  of  annuals,  under  one  name  or  another,  in 
which  were  given  the  names  and  residences  of  members 
of  congress  and  other  prominent  officials.  For  a 
long  time  it  was  published  by  Jonathan  Elliot,  Jr. 
Blair  and  Rives  sometimes  brought  it  out,  and  some 
times  we  find  two  editions  for  the  same  year,  ap 
parently  identical  except  as  to  title-page.  It  was  a 
private  enterprise  and  was  probably  intended  chiefly 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER 

for  the  use  of  those  whom  business  or  curiosity  im 
pelled  to  seek  the  federal  officials.  Force's  name 
appears  on  an  edition  of  1820.  The  edition  of  1839 
contained  diagrams  showing  the  seating  of  the  senate 
and  the  house.  It  was  a  feature  likely  to  find  favor 
with  those  who  occupied  the  galleries  in  the  capitol. 
In  1841  and  1842  an  edition  appeared  with  Peter 
Force's  imprint.  It  was  identical  with  an  edition 
in  the  same  years  with  the  imprint  of  Robert  Farnham. 
In  1843-1844  came  an  edition  by  W.  Q.  Force,  son  of 
Colonel  Force,  and  with  that  ends  the  connection 
of  the  family  with  the  "  Directory  of  Congress."  The 
remainder  of  this  story  deals  with  the  historical  activi 
ties  of  Colonel  Force,  which  constitute  my  sole  reason 
for  laying  his  career  before  the  reader. 

2.    The  American  Archives;  Origin  of  the  Enterprise 

It  is  not  easy  to  find  the  origin  of  a  movement 
which  between  the  years  1827  and  1837  resulted  in 
the  publication  of  Sparks's  "Diplomatic  Correspond 
ence  of  the  American  Revolution"  and  the  beginning 
of  his  great  work  on  Washington,  the  publication 
of  Blair  and  Rives's  collection  of  "State  Papers," 
and  the  fair  launching  of  Colonel  Peter  Force's 
great  series  the  "American  Archives."  We  find  the 
idea  that  inspired  all  these  works  in  the  "Document 
ary  History  of  the  Revolution,"  planned  by  Ebenezer 
Hazard  just  after  the  revolution,  but  never  carried 
to  completion.  It  reappears  in  Jedediah  Morse's 


240  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

" Annals  of  the  American  Revolution,"  1824,  an  in 
adequate  compilation  which  made  only  a  slight  im 
pression  on  either  contemporaries  or  posterity.  But 
while  we  are  guessing  we  cannot  ignore  the  influence 
of  Chalmers's  "Political  Annals  of  the  Colonies," 
1780,1  a  well- written  work  based  upon  original  materials 
in  the  British  public  offices.  Frequent  mention  of 
Chalmers's  book  is  made  in  the  letters  of  the  men  of 
the  period  under  consideration,  and  it  was  a  constant 
reminder  to  them  of  the  need  of  collecting  and  using 
the  scattered  materials  in  the  various  parts  of  our 
own  country. 

Probably  the  earliest  compendious  scheme  for  a 
historical  work  at  the  epoch  just  mentioned  was  that 
projected  as  early  as  1819  by  Judge  Archibald  D. 
Murphey,  of  North  Carolina.  An  able  lawyer  with 
an  active  practice,  he  had  no  special  training  for 
history  writing ;  but  his  strong  mind  and  deep 
interest  in  every  phase  of  the  life  of  the  people 
led  him  to  plan  an  all-embracing  treatment  of  the 
state's  history.  If  carried  out  as  announced  it 
would  have  required  five  volumes  to  treat  of  the 
early  charters,  the  military  and  civil  affairs,  the  physi 
cal  condition,  the  progress  of  society,  and  the  economic 
development  of  North  Carolina.  No  state  has,  up 
to  this  day,  written  its  history  so  extensively. 
Judge  Murphey  collected  materials,  mostly,  it  seems, 

1  His  "Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  Revolt "  was  not  published 
until  1845. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        241 

the  reminiscences  of  men  living  in  his  day.  After  a 
time  he  came  to  realize  that  he  needed  documents  in 
the  keeping  of  the  British  government,  in  London; 
and  in  1825  he  called  upon  the  assembly  for  aid  in 
publishing  the  work.  He  was  given  authority  to 
establish  a  lottery  to  raise  money  in  order  to  send  an 
agent  to  London  to  collect  materials  and  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  publication.  The  project  was  well 
received  by  the  newspapers,  and  Fourth-of-July  toasts 
were  drunk  to  its  success,  but  the  tickets  sold  slowly. 
In  1827  the  assembly  took  steps  by  which  the  lottery 
could  be  enlarged  so  that  he  could  raise  $25,000 
instead  of  the  $15,000  first  authorized.1  Nothing  came 
of  these  efforts,  and  in  1832  Murphey  died,  overwhelmed 
with  debt  and  disappointment.  His  proposed  his 
tory  got  no  further  than  the  collection  of  some  of  the 
materials  he  needed.  He  wrote  a  polished  sentence 
and  had  a  proper  sense  of  the  valuable  things  of  his 
tory.  Had  he  lived  longer,  and  had  he  found  him 
self  master  of  enough  time  and  concentration  to  carry 
through  his  scheme  as  planned,  we  should  have 
possessed,  in  all  likelihood,  in  his  five  or  six  volumes, 
a  noble  state  history. 

About  this  time  several  states  made  feeble  efforts 
to  get  copies  of  historical  papers  from  the  public 
offices  in  England.  Perhaps  the  first  to  act  was  North 

1Hoyt,  editor,  "The  Papers  of  Archibald  D.  Murphey,"  2  vols.,  Pubs, 
N.  C.  Histl.  Commission,  I,  146,  187-206,  208-216,  220-238,  323-324,  326, 
332,  338-341,  347  n,  350-353,  357,  361,  364,  395,  399;  II,  361-363,  414, 
and  passim. 


242  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Carolina,  which  in  1825,  as  we  have  seen,  gave  Mur- 
phey  permission  to  establish  a  lottery,  part  of  the 
proceeds  of  which  were  to  be  used  in  making  copies 
in  London.  February  9,  1827,  the  assembly  directed 
the  governor  to  apply  through  the  American  minis 
ter  in  England  for  permission  to  copy  historical 
documents  relating  to  the  colony  of  North  Carolina. 
Cordial  replies  were  received,  granting  the  liberty  to 
make  copies  of  the  papers  in  the  custody  of  the 
board  of  trade  and  those  indicated  in  a  list  which 
was  forwarded.  In  1825  a  similar  favor  had  been 
granted  in  reference  to  the  records  of  the  colony  of 
Georgia,  the  request  in  this  case  coming  from  a  pri 
vate  individual,  Mr.  Tattnall.  November  15,  1826, 
Governor  Troup  recommended  to  the  assembly  that 
the  state  historiographer  be  sent  to  London  to  obtain 
the  desired  copies.  December  7,  1827,  the  senate  of 
South  Carolina  resolved  that  similar  copies  relating 
to  the  history  of  that  state  should  be  made;  and  in 
1830  Henry  N.  Cruger,  a  citizen  of  the  state,  returned 
from  England  with  a  report  on  the  whereabouts  of 
the  several  kinds  of  papers  on  South  Carolina  history 
in  the  British  public  offices.  All  these  efforts  were 
without  favorable  results.  They  seem  to  have  been 
due  to  the  activities  of  a  few  individuals,  who  soon 
ceased  to  press  them.1 

1  Clarke  and  Force,  "Report  to  Secretary  Forsythe  on  the  Documentary 
History  of  the  United  States,  pp.  14-22.  See  also  Hoyt,  editor,  loc.  cit.. 
II.,  362. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        243 

In  the  same  year,  1827,  a  similar  series  of  efforts 
was  made  in  New  England.  The  general  assembly 
of  Rhode  Island  voted  that  the  state's  senators  and 
representatives  be  requested  to  endeavor  to  get  the 
federal  government  to  obtain  copies  of  papers  in  the 
British  offices  "relating  to  the  early  history  of  this 
country."  January  24,  in  the  same  year,  the  Ameri 
can  Antiquarian  Society  voted  to  ask  the  Massachu 
setts  delegation  to  use  their  efforts  to  the  same  end; 
and  about  the  same  time  the  Massachusetts  Histori 
cal  Society  passed  similar  resolutions,  signed  by  John 
Davis,  James  Savage,  and  James  Bowdoin.1  It  seems 
hardly  probable  that  the  year  1827  should  have  seen 
so  many  and  such  widely  separated  efforts  of  a  similar 
nature  without  some  common  course.  Who  stimulated 
this  action  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  It  could  hardly 
have  been  Sparks;  for  although  he  made  his  first 
journey  into  the  South  to  collect  materials  in  1826, 
his  ample  biography  and  his  diary  as  well  give 
no  intimation  that  he  had  aught  to  do  with  the  state 
efforts.  It  could  not  have  been  Bancroft ;  for  he  was 
still  engrossed  with  the  duties  of  schoolmaster  at 
Northampton,  and  what  literary  opportunity  he  had 
was  directed  to  schoolbooks  and  magazine  articles. 
Nor  could  it  have  been  Judge  Murphey ;  for  his  influ 
ence  was  strictly  local.  Probably  the  movement  was 
in  the  air,  and  Murphey,  Sparks,  state  officials,  and 
learned  societies  acted  from  a  general  impulse. 

1  Clarke  and  Force,  "Report  to  Secretary  Forsythe,"  pp.  22-26. 


244  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  revival  of  interest  in  his 
tory  that  Peter  Force  came  into  the  field  as  a  collector 
of  historical  documents  and  as  a  compiler  and  publisher. 
When  and  how  he  formed  his  great  project  does  not 
appear.  He  had  a  partner  in  the  enterprise,  but 
since  he  was  the  sustaining  factor  of  the  plan  on  its 
intellectual  side,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  it  originated 
with  him,  and  there  is  no  good  reason  to  doubt  his 
statement  that  he  began  to  gather  historical  materials 
as  early  as  1822.  His  design  was  to  publish  in  one 
collection  all  the  historical  evidence  bearing  on  the 
revolution.  We  shall  see  how  the  scheme  was  ampli 
fied  as  he  became  better  acquainted  with  the  conditions 
under  which  it  was  to  be  carried  through.  From  the 
first  it  was  his  intention  that  his  publication  should 
be  a  complete  embodiment  of  all  the  material  he  could 
find  on  the  subject  proposed. 

Force's  partner  was  Matthew  St.  Clair  Clarke,  a 
native  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  clerk  of  the  house  of 
Representatives  from  1822  to  1833,  when  he  was  de 
feated  by  Walter  S.  Franklin,  also  of  Pennsylvania. 
He  was  again  elected  to  the  same  position  in  1841, 
and  served  for  two  years,1  after  which  he  appears  as 
sixth  auditor  of  the  treasury  department.  That  he 
was  a  man  of  wealth  is  shown  by  .the  fact  that  in  the 
latter  part  of  his  career  he  lived  in  what  was  popu 
larly  said  to  be  the  finest  house  in  Washington,  on 
What  was  then  called  President's  Square.  He  fur- 

1  House  Journals,  passim. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        245 

nished  the  money  for  expenses,  while  Force  collected 
materials,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  partners  relied  on 
his  political  influence  to  get  the  congressional  appro 
priation  on  which  depended  the  success  of  the  under 
taking. 

In  a  statement  which  they  laid  before  the  secretary 
of  state,  1834,  explaining  their  plans,  we  find  this  as 
sertion :  "About  twelve  years  ago  the  plan  of  our 
work  was  originally  fixed  upon.  It  began  by  the  pur 
chase  and  critical  examination  of  books,  pamphlets, 
newspapers,  and  early  periodical  publications,  con 
taining  or  referring  to  documents,  correspondence, 
speeches,  parliamentary  and  legislative  proceedings, 
etc.,  etc.  Of  these  a  large  and  very  valuable  collection 
has  been  made,  containing  many  papers  not  else 
where  to  be  found.  During  great  part  of  the  time 
our  progress  was  necessarily  slow.  For  the  last  five 
years,  Mr.  Force,  excepting  a  short  time  in  each  year, 
expended  on  his  Annual  Register,  has  been  devoted  to 
this  work,  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other  pursuit."  1 

Since  Force  gave  up  the  editorship  of  the  Journal 
early  in  1830,  we  may  fix  upon  the  end  of  1829  as  the 
time  at  which  he  gave  himself  up  entirely  to  his 
project.  In  1829  appeared  the  first  volume  of  Sparks's 
"Diplomatic  Correspondence"  and  eighteen  months 
later  the  work  was  completed  in  twelve  volumes. 
The  editor's  net  profits  must  have  be,en  very  satisfac 
tory  at  a  time  when  a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars 

1  Forsyth's  Report,  1834. 


246  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

a  year  was  considered  good.  In  1832  Blair  and  Rives, 
snatching  it  out  of  the  very  hands  of  Sparks,  got  a 
contract  to  continue  this  publication  for  the  years 
1783-1789.  Gales  and  Seaton  got  a  contract  in  1831  to 
publish  the  "  American  State  Papers  "  at  remunerative 
prices.1  Seeing  these  fine  opportunities  going  into  the 
hands  of  other  men,  probably  spurred  Force  on  to 
action.  In  1832  he  had  formed  his  partnership  with 
Clarke  and  the  two  men  were  standing  cap  in  hand 
before  the  door  of  the  government.  It  would  be 
pleasant  to  speak  of  these  various  enterprises  as  dis 
interested  labors  of  men  devoted  to  scholarship ; 
but  such  language  would  be  only  half  the  truth.  They 
were  planned  by  persons  who  saw  in  government 
contracts  opportunities  to  make  money.  The  rap 
idity  with  which  one  application  followed  another 
shows  how  quickly  the  men  concerned  saw  the  advan 
tage  that  lay  in  the  business.  It  is  fair  to  say  that 
Force  was,  probably,  least  selfish  of  all  the  group. 
He  was  filled  with  a  genuine  devotion  to  an  idea,  but 
he  was  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  Washington  City, 
and  he  held  steadfastly  to  the  idea  that  he  could  get 
congress  to  publish  his  work  and  purchase  the  great 
collection  of  materials  he  was  gathering. 

3.   Relations  with  the  Government 

It  was  in  1831,  the  year  in  which  Blair  and  Rives, 
and  Gales  and  Seaton,  secured  their  contracts,  that 

1  See  above,  p.  82. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        247 

Clarke  and  Force  also  began  to  seek  recognition. 
July  18,  they  sent  a  memorial  to  Edward  Livingston, 
secretary  of  state,  proposing  to  publish  "A  Documen 
tary  History  of  the  American  Revolution,  from  the 
Commencement  of  the  Restrictive  Measures  of  Great 
Britain  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  1789."  The  work  was  to  be  in  six 
divisions,  as  follows :  1.  The  origins  of  the  several 
colonies,  their  charters  and  public  papers  up  to 
1763 ;  2.  Materials  on  the  years  1763  to  1765  ;  3.  Ma 
terials  on  the  years  1765  to  1774 ;  4.  Materials  on  the 
period  from  the  meeting  of  the  first  continental  con 
gress  to  the  adoption  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  ;  5.  Materials  on  the  years  from  the  adoption 
of  the  Declaration  to  the  treaty  of  peace,  1776  to 
1783 ;  and  6.  Materials  on  the  period  from  the 
treaty  of  peace  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution, 
1783  to  1789.  The  memorialists  said  nothing  at  this 
time  about  compensation,  but  asked  permission  to 
copy  and  publish  the  papers  in  the  public  offices.  The 
secretary  replied,  July  20,  giving  the  desired  per 
mission. 

Early  in  1832  the  matter  was  before  Congress.1 
Clarke  now  saw  Edward  Everett,  ever  a  patron  of 
enterprises  that  had  a  literary  flavor.  February  1  he 
wrote  saying  that  he  would  agree  to  print  and  deliver  to 
the  government  1500  copies  of  his  proposed  work  at  ten 

1  G.  C.  Verplanck  to  Jared  Sparks,  Jan  17,  1832.  Sparks  MSS.  Har 
vard  University  Library. 


248  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

dollars  a  volume,  the  form  to  be  like  that  of  the  "Amer 
ican  State  Papers,"  which  Gales  and  Seaton  were  then 
getting  out.1  He*  and  Force  would  procure  the  copies 
of  the  papers  to  be  published,  with  the  exception  of 
those  that  came  from  abroad,  which  he  wished  the 
government  to  furnish.  In  making  his  appeal  Clarke 
referred  to  the  vote  of  congress  in  1781,  in  aid  of 
Hazard's  proposed  "Documentary  History  of  the 
Revolution,"  using  it  as  a  precedent  for  his  and  Force's 
request.  In  June,  1832,  a  bill  was  before  congress 
subscribing  to  the  proposed  work  at  the  rate  of  eight 
dollars  a  volume  of  eight  hundred  pages.  It  was 
voted  down  because  the  price  was  considered  exces 
sive.2  In  the  following  winter  another  bill  appeared. 
It  authorized  the  secretary  of  state  to  contract  with 
Clarke  and  Force  for  the  publication  of  "The  Docu 
mentary  History  of  the  Revolution,"  provided  the  cost 
a  volume  should  not  be  higher  than  that  of  Sparks  's 
"Diplomatic  Correspondence."  The  bill  became  a  law 
on  March  2,  1833,  being  carried  through  at  the  close 
of  a  strenuous  session,  in  which  nullification  and  the 
"Force  bill"  were  the  overwhelming  topics  of  debate.3 
Livingston  now  completed  the  contract  in  due 
form.  Sparks's  work  had  appeared  in  octavo  form  and 
the  government  had  paid  for  it  at  the  rate  of 


1  As  clerk  of  the  house  of  representatives,  Clarke,  with  Lowrie,  secretary 
of  the  senate,  supervised  the  publication  of  the  "State  Papers,"  nine  vol 
umes  of  which  appeared  in  1832. 

2  Debates  in  Congress,  1835-1836,  3303  (Vol.  XII,  Part  III). 
8  Peters,  "U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,"  IV,  654. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        249 

a  page,  taking  1000  copies  averaging  537£  pages  each. 
As  the  new  work  was  to  be  folio  in  size  and  the  number 
of  copies  were  to  be  distributed  liberally  among  the 
congressmen  and  the  persons  and  institutions  to 
which  congress  would  wish  to  give  them,  1500  copies 
were  to  be  ordered.  A  practical  printer  was  called 
on  for  an  estimate  transmuting  the  cost  a  volume  of 
Sparks's  book  into  that  of  the  proposed  work.  The 
result  was  that  it  was  agreed  that  the  government 
would  take  fifteen  hundred  copies  of  the  work  in  folio 
at  the  rate  of  one  and  seven-eighths  cents  a  page  a 
copy.  Clarke  and  Force  were  to  do  all  the  work  of 
collecting,  editing,  and  printing  at  their  own  expense. 
In  the  rate  hit  upon,  a  small  sum  was  allowed  for  in 
dices,  which  were  not  in  the  "Diplomatic  Corre 
spondence."  As  each  volume  would  have  about  eight 
hundred  pages,  the  publishers  would  receive  about 
fifteen  dollars  for  it;  that  is,  about  twenty-two 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars  for  each  edition  deliv 
ered. 

Among  the  Force  manuscripts  are  some  memoranda 
which  Force  submitted  to  Clarke,  who  was  not  a 
printer,  February  1,  1832,  showing  what  the  two  men 
then  thought  of  the  enterprise  as  a  business  venture. 
Force  said  that  five  volumes  would  be  required  to 
carry  out  his  plans,  and  for  all  of  them  in  the  size  and 
style  of  the  "State  Papers,"  which  he  thought  the  pref 
erable  form,  he  gave  the  following  estimate  of  the  cost : 
"Paper,  $9,375;  composition,  $6,912;  presswork, 


250  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

$4,320;  binding,  $7,500;  total,  $28,107."  He  pro 
posed  that  the  volumes  be  delivered  for  ten  dollars 
each  if  a  thousand  were  taken,  or  for  eight  dollars 
each  if  fifteen  hundred  were  taken.  The  figures  quoted 
are  on  the  basis  of  five  volumes  with  fifteen  hundred 
copies  of  each.  Force's  memorandum  also  places 
the  receipts  from  the  sale  at  $75,000,  showing  that  he 
was  thinking  of  ten  dollars  a  volume,  instead  of  eight. 
On  this  basis  he  made  the  profit  of  the  enterprise  $46,893. 
But  from  it  he  has  subtracted  $15,000  without  indi 
cating  the  purpose.  It  is  a  fair  guess  that  he  meant 
that  amount,  $3000  a  volume,  to  be  deducted  as  the 
editor's  pay  for  his  services. 

The  estimate  just  given  was  modest  in  comparison 
with  what  came  later.  It  showed  Force's  idea  of  the 
project  in  1832,  when  he  could  hardly  have  had  a  cor 
rect  view  of  the  nature  of  the  work  upon  which  he 
wished  to  enter.  Clarke,  long  accustomed,  as  clerk 
of  the  house,  to  the  ways  by  which  the  government 
may  be  made  to  yield  its  favors,  had  a  better  realiza 
tion  of  the  opportunity  before  him.  Among  the  manu 
scripts  is  the  following  for  1833,  representing  what  the 
partners  had  in  mind  when  the  contract  with  the 
secretary  of  state  was  actually  made :  "  Expense 
per  volume  according  to  the  accompanying  estimates, 
all  of  which  are  of  the  highest  rates.  The  calculation 
is  for  a  volume  of  850  pages.  1.  Printing,  $3,612.50; 
2.  Binding,  $2,250.00 ;  3.  Paper,  $2,232.00 ;  4.  Index 
and  other  expenses,  $2,580.00.  Total,  $10,674.50. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        251 

Leaves,  over  and  above  estimated  expenses  per 
volume,  $11,000.  The  contract  price  for  a  vol 
ume  of  850  pages,  $21,675.00."  Along  with  this  memo- 
ranclum  is  an  estimate  from  a  printer,  R.  S. 
Coxe;  and  in  it  is  the  following:  "P.  F.  Shall,  if  he 
chooses,  print  and  bind  the  work,  in  the  manner  and 
form  required  by  the  contract  with  the  secretary  of 
state  on  the  following  terms  :  1.  For  Printing  (includ 
ing  composition  and  press  work),  four  dollars  and 
twenty -five  cents  per  page ;  2.  For  Binding,  one  dollar 
and  fifty  cents  per  copy."  It  seems  that  Force  and 
Clarke  were  thus  paid  at  a  higher  rate  than  Gales  and 
Seaton,  although  they  claimed  that  their  compensa 
tion  was  at  a  slightly  lower  rate  than  that  of  Sparks. 
Force  himself,  just  quoted,  said  that  the  former  were 
paid  at  the  rate  of  eight  dollars  a  volume  for  fifteen 
hundred  copies  and  ten  dollars  a  volume  for  one  thou 
sand  volumes.  But  his  own  volumes,  which  contained 
only  eighty-three  per  cent,  as  many  words  on  the  page 
as  Gales  and  Seaton's,  were  sold  to  the  government  at 
fifteen  dollars  a  volume  for  fifteen  hundred  copies.1 
This  point  should  be  borne  in  mind  in  connection 
with  the  great  popular  dissatisfaction  when  the  terms 
of  the  agreement  become  known. 

The  contract  signed,  the  two  partners  turned  with 
zeal  to  the  work  of  collecting  materials.  Force,  it  is 
true,  had  been  collecting  pamphlets  and  books  for 
many  years,  but  he  had  probably  done  little  in  gather- 

1  Force  MSS.    Library  of  Congress. 


252  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

ing  the  actual  manuscript  materials.  In  the  autumn 
of  1833  he  was  in  New  England,  visiting  state  capitals, 
selecting  documents  and  leaving  orders  for  copies. 
Clarke  was  paying  the  bills,  and  at  one  time  had  so 
much  difficulty  to  get  money  that  his  partner,  at 
Concord,  New  Hampshire,  was  seriously  inconven 
ienced.  Clarke  himself  was  in  Boston  and  looked 
over  the  manuscripts  in  the  possession  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society.  When  he  saw  how  many 
there  were  he  was  horrified.1 

He  soon  had  other  cause  for  anxiety.  Both  he  and 
Force  were  supporters  of  Clay,  and  as  such  they  were 
likely  in  1834,  when  Clay  was  making  his  bitterest 
attacks  on  Jackson,  to  be  the  objects  of  the  resent 
ment  of  the  supporters  of  Jackson.  The  attorney- 
general,  Butler,  of  New  York,  was  called  on  for  his 
opinion  on  the  legality  of  the  contract.  He  could 
not  deny  that  the  agreement  was  legally  made,  but 
he  declared  that  it  was  a  bad  bargain  for  the  govern 
ment,  since  it  was  unlimited  as  to  the  number  of 
volumes  and  the  final  cost  might  be  very  great.  To 
meet  these  objections  Clarke,  April  17,  appealed  to 
Polk,  chairman  of  the  ways  and  means  committee.  It 
was  the  nature  of  a  work  like  this,  he  said,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  tell  how  large  it  would  become,  since  the 
materials  were  still  unearthed.  He  and  Force  had 
suggested  in  the  beginning  that  congress  should 

1  Force  to  Clarke,  Sept.  14,  1833;  Clarke  to  Force,  Sept.  12,  1833. 
Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        253 

create  a  tribunal  to  determine  what  should  go  into 
the  series,  but  the  suggestion  was  ignored.  They  did 
not  think  the  American  people  would  object  to  paying 
thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  preserve  their 
history  in  a  form  more  reliable  and  complete  than  any 
other  nation  could  hope  to  have  of  the  history  of  its 
early  years.  Clarke  closed  by  asking  for  an  advance  to 
pay  for  the  expenses  of  preparing  the  first  volume  for 
the  press.  He  said  he  hoped  to  bring  out  in  1835  all 
the  documents  on  the  years  from  May,  1774,  to  the 
end  of  1776.1  To  Senator  Chambers,  of  Maryland, 
who  had  said  that  the  number  of  volumes  might  reach 
one  hundred,  Clarke  replied  it  had  been  agreed  that  this 
was  a  matter  which  should  be  left  to  the  judgment  of 
the  compilers,  but  that  he  was  willing,  if  it  was  thought 
wise,  to  limit  the  work  to  twenty  volumes.2 

Livingston  ceased  to  be  secretary  of  state  May  29, 
1833.  He  was  followed  by  Louis  McLane,  who  seems  to 
have  had  little  interest  in  the  "Documentary  History." 
After  him  came  John  Forsyth,  whose  commission 
was  dated  June  27,  1834,  but  who  actually  entered 
office  on  July  1,  not  to  leave  it  until  March  3,  1841, 
when  the  Whigs  came  into  power.  Forsyth  was  a 
senator  from  Georgia  in  1833  and  had  at  that  time  op 
posed  the  bill  granting  the  request  of  Clarke  and  Force. 
Two  days  after  his  commission  was  dated,  and  two 
days  before  he  entered  office,  congress  instructed  the 

1  Force  MSS. 

2  Clarke  to  Chambers,  June  20,  1834,  Force  MSS. 


254  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

secretary  of  state  to  examine  the  contract  with  the 
two  partners  and  to  report  on  the  nature  of  the  mate 
rials  to  be  included  in  the  work,  the  number  of  volumes, 
and  the  estimated  cost  of  the  whole.  There  are  evi 
dences  that  the  partners  were  in  a  panicky  state  of 
mind,  and  in  Force's  manuscripts  is  a  copy  in  his  own 
hand  of  an  "additional  covenant"  dated  June  7, 
when  the  blow  was  foreseen,  offering  to  limit  the  edi 
tion  to  twenty  volumes  and  to  submit  all  the  material 
before  printing  to  the  approval  of  the  secretary  of 
state.  This  proposal  was  not  then  accepted. 

December  22,  1834,  Forsyth  sent  in  the  report  re 
quired  of  him.  Neither  the  contract  nor  the  law,  he 
said,  indicated  what  kind  of  materials  would  be  used 
in  the  proposed  work.  The  compilers  referred  to  it  as 
a  "Documentary  History  of  the  American  Revolution 
from  the  Commencement  of  the  Restrictive  Measures 
of  Great  Britain  to  the  Adoption  of  the  Present  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States";  but  from  the  plan 
announced  it  seemed  that  the  materials  would  begin 
with  the  origins  of  the  colonies.  The  compilers  re 
ported,  he  continued,  that  they  had  examined  the 
archives  of  ten  of  the  original  thirteen  states  and  that 
they  had  made  copies  or  were  about  to  make  them  for 
the  other  three.  In  all  they  had  copied,  or  were 
about  to  copy,  60,000  manuscript  pages  distributed  as 
follows  :  in  the  state  department  and  referring  to  the 
continental  congress,  30,000 ;  state  records  in  Geor 
gia,  New  Hampshire  and  elsewhere,  20,000;  from  old 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER         255 

periodicals  etc.,  5000;  and  on  New  England,  1774- 
1776,  5000.  Material  was  on  hand  for  several  vol 
umes,  though  there  were  some  gaps  which  the  com 
pilers  were  trying  hard  to  fill  up.  They  added  that 
they  would  soon  begin  to  print  the  first  volume  of 
Series  IV  and  hoped  to  deliver  it  early  in  the  next 
session  of  congress,  that  is,  in  December,  1835. 
They  had  not,  however,  been  able  to  get  permission  to 
take  copies  freely  from  the  public  offices  in  England. 
Thus  spoke  Clarke  and  Force  to  the  secretary  of 
state. 

Forsyth  said  that  the  contract  was  "uncertain  and 
defective,"  but  he  was  unwilling  to  say  how  far  congress 
could  remedy  the  deficiency.  At  present  the  only 
control  over  the  compilers  was  to  withhold  payment 
if  the  work  was  not  done  as  agreed.  He  reported  that 
Clarke  and  Force  were  willing  to  limit  themselves 
to  twenty  volumes,  saying  that  if  at  the  end  of  that 
number  the  work  seemed  incomplete  they  would 
ask  congress  to  continue  it.  On  this  basis  the  total 
cost  would  be  limited  to  $20,400  a  volume,  or  $408,000 
for  the  twenty  volumes.  These  concessions  were  not 
satisfactory  to  the  secretary,  who  recommended  in 
closing  that  congress  take  steps  to  regulate  the  size 
and  number  of  volumes,  and  fix  the  time  at  which  the 
work  should  be  completed.  He  also  thought  that  there 
should  be  a  proper  supervision  of  the  selection  of  the 
matter  published,  that  much  might  well  be  omitted, 
and  that  in  general  papers  already  in  print  and  very 


256  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

trivial  papers  of  any  kind  ought  not  to  be  included.1 
Nothing  was  done  at  the  time  to  carry  out  the  recom 
mendations  of  the  secretary. 

However  much  we  have  at  heart  the  cause  of  his 
torical  publication,  we  must  agree  that  Forsyth  had 
much  truth  on  his  side.  Livingston  had  made  a  loose 
arrangement  under  which  a  designing  man  could  have 
saddled  the  government  with  a  large  and  indefinite 
expense.  Force's  character  was  such  that  we  cannot 
charge  him  with  entirely  selfish  motives;  but  Clarke 
was  a  politician,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
he  was  better  than  the  average  of  his  kind  in  his  day. 
Certainly,  Forsyth  and  many  others  looked  upon  the 
two  men  as  persons  who  had  secured  a  fat  job  at  the 
expense  of  a  careless  congress  and  secretary  of  state, 
and  the  impression  thus  formed  embarrassed  the  part 
ners  as  long  as  their  enterprise  continued. 

They  suffered  also  through  the  impatience  of  the 
congressmen  to  get  the  free  copies  which  had  been 
voted  them.  As  the  months  ran  into  years  and  no 
copies  of  the  "Documentary  History"  were  sent  out, 
members  began  to  inquire  what  progress  was  being 
made.  To  one  such  inquirer  Force  wrote  February  3, 
1837,  quieting  his  anxiety  and  saying  that  one  volume 
was  in  press,  that  materials  collected  were  sufficient 
to  make  ten  volumes,  and  that  he  would  be  pleased 

1  23d  cong.,  2d  sess.,  House  of  Reps.,  State  Dept.,  Doc.  No.  36.  Appended 
to  the  report  were  petitions  and  statements  by  Clarke  and  Force,  from 
which  fact  the  document  is  frequently  catalogued  under  their  names. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        257 

to  have  congressmen  inspect  what  had  been  done.1 
The  view  of  the  public  at  large  was  expressed  by  a 
correspondent  of  the  Boston  Courier,  April  21,  1836, 
who  said  that  the  scheme  began  with  Hazard  in  1789, 
who  issued  two  volumes  and  made  money  out  of  them.2 
"From  the  year  1789  to  1833,  a  period  of  forty-four 
years,"  he  said,  "the  work  was  forgotten,  but  in  the 
latter  year  Matthew  St.  Clair  Clarke,  losing  his  office 
of  clerk,  memorialized  congress,"  which  agreed  without 
stopping  to  inquire  how  many  volumes  could  be  printed. 
It  now  appeared  that  if  the  compilers  went  on  as  they 
intended,  the  work  would  cost  the  public  $500,000. 

This  notice  in  the  Courier  was  probably  called  forth 
by  a  warm  debate  in  the  house  of  representatives  in 
April,  1836.  Clarke  and  Force  at  this  time  had  been 
collecting  materials  for  some  time  and  they  had  ac 
cumulated  debts  to  the  amount  of  $35,000  on  account 
of  the  enterprise.3  They  were  anxious  to  have  an 
appropriation  authorized,  so  that  it  would  be  imme 
diately  available  on  the  completion  of  the  first  volume. 
When  the  general  appropriation  bill  reached  the  com 
mittee  of  the  whole  in  the  spring  of  1836  it  contained  an 
item  of  $20,000  for  the  "Documentary  History."  This 
item  provoked  the  discussion  to  which  the  Courier 
undoubtedly  referred  in  the  extract  cited.  The  com- 

1  Force  to  Edmund  Deberry,  February  3,  1837,  Force  MSS. 

2  The  statement  was  entirely  erroneous.     Hazard's  two  volumes  were 
not  issued  under  a  grant  from  congress,  and  he  made  no  money  out  of  them. 
See  Belknap  Papers,  Mass.  Histl.  Soc.,  "  Col.,"  Ser.  V,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  361. 

3  Clarke  to  Cambreling,  January  25,  1836,  Force  MSS. 


258  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

pilers  sent  to  the  chief  objectors  a  long  statement  in 
their  own  justification,  but  it  did  no  good.  The  com 
mittee  of  the  whole  voted  to  strike  out  the  item  mak 
ing  the  appropriation.  On  reporting  to  the  house 
there  was  another  debate  in  which  John  Quincy  Adams, 
Edward  Everett,  Vanderpoel,  and  others  came  to  the 
aid  of  the  proposed  work,  while  Cave  Johnson  and 
Huntsman,  both  of  Tennessee,  were  the  leading  crit 
ics  of  it. 

Adams's  argument  for  the  appropriation  is  not 
preserved,  but  a  part  of  Cave  Johnson's  speech  is  in 
the  "Debates  in  Congress,"  and  it  shows  the  basis  of 
opposition  to  the  work.  He  attacked  Livingston  for 
failure  to  guard  the  interest  of  the  government  in  mak 
ing  the  contract.  The  bill  authorizing  it,  said  he, 
was  most  modestly  named.  No  member  who  voted 
for  it  had  an  idea  that  he  was  voting  for  the  pub 
lication  of  a  book  larger  than  "a  volume  or  two  of 
moderate  size."  And  who  could  have  expected  a 
work  so  large  that  it  might  cost  the  government  a 
million  dollars  or  more  ?  It  is  true  the  publishers 
were  willing  to  limit  the  number  of  volumes  to  twenty, 
costing  a  little  more  than  $400,000,  but  this  was  ex 
cessive  and  would  never  have  been  granted  had  con 
gress  realized  what  it  was  doing.  The  most  he  would 
agree  to  was  that  a  fair  estimate  be  made  of  the  ex 
pense  Clarke  and  Force  had  incurred  in  their  work 
and  the  sum  expended  be  repaid  to  them,  together 
with  a  liberal  payment  for  their  time  and  efforts. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        259 

Johnson  attacked  very  properly  the  practice  of 
publishing  and  distributing  books  at  the  expense  of 
the  government.  Since  1826,  he  said,  congress  had  paid 
for  such  purposes  the  sum  of  $397,994,  and  it  was  now 
proposed  to  add  to  that  sum  an  even  larger  amount 
in  only  one  item.  This  vast  expenditure  was  suffi 
cient  to  procure  for  congress  the  best  library  in  the 
world.  He  was  willing  to  vote  for  the  liberal  pur 
chase  of  books  for  the  library,  but  he  thought  that 
congress  should  cease  to  be  a  publisher.  He  thought 
the  sad  error  into  which  the  national  legislature  had 
fallen  in  the  contract  with  Clarke  and  Force  was  suffi 
cient  proof  of  this  opinion. 

In  attacking  the  contract  Johnson  made  this  state 
ment  :  A  bill  authorizing  the  publication  of  the  "Doc 
umentary  History"  was  before  congress  in  June, 
1832,  and  it  said  specifically  that  the  price  should  be 
eight  dollars  for  a  volume  of  eight  hundred  pages. 
At  the  time  the  publishers  thought  that  a  fair  price; 
but  congress  thought  otherwise  and  the  bill  failed. 
When  re-introduced  in  the  next  congress  the  price 
was  not  named  specifically,  the  only  allusion  to  the 
subject  being  the  statement  that  the  work  would 
not  cost  more  a  volume  than  Sparks's  "Diplomatic 
History,"  a  book  in  small  volumes,  octavo  size,  of 
about  544  pages,  for  which  the  government  paid  two 
dollars  and  twenty  cents  a  volume.  No  one  sus 
pected  that  under  this  general  description  of  the  cost 
a  contract  would  be  made  by  which  an  indefinite 


260  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

number  of  folio  volumes  could  be  printed  at  fifteen 
dollars  for  each  volume  of  eight  hundred  pages,  es 
pecially  since  in  1832  the  publishers  were  willing  to 
take  eight  dollars  for  the  same  size  volume.1  By 
such  an  argument  Johnson  sought  to  show  that  the 
contract  was  made  through  fraud. 

Huntsman  was  a  less  able  man  than  Johnson,  and 
his  speech  was  colored  by  deep  popular  prejudice. 
But  at  one  point  it  illuminates  the  subject  by  showing 
the  unavowed  opinion  many  congressmen  had  of  the 
part  Clarke  took  in  the  transaction.  John  Quincy 
Adams  had  said  that  one  of  the  men  to  whom  the 
contract  was  given  "was  long  a  clerk  in  this  House, 
was  a  clerk  at  the  time,  and  that  he  is  advantageously 
known  as  a  gentleman."  In  reply  Huntsman  said : 
"Sometimes  these  clerks  become  very  popular  among 
the  members ;  they  pass  to  and  fro  amongst  them,  and 
render  many  little  services.  Sometimes,  in  a  con 
venient  anteroom,  there  may  be  some  cool,  whole 
some  water  to  drink;  and  the  members  are  invited 
in.  The  conclusion  is,  that  this  clerk  is  a  very  clever 
fellow;  and  by  these  and  other  little  attentions  the 
clerk  gets  the  contract,  the  members  the  books,  and 
Uncle  Sam  is  taxed  with  the  costs."  2 

The  upshot  of  the  discussion  was  that  the  house 
voted,  yeas  85,  nays  93,  against  the  motion  to  strike 
out  the  appropriation.  The  publishers  had  won, 

1  Debates  in  Congress,  1835-1836,  3300-3307. 

2  Ibid.,  3306  (Vol.  XII,  part  III). 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        261 

but  their  majority  was  narrow.  From  that  time  they 
proceeded  for  many  years  with  little  restraint,  al 
though  there  was  much  to  annoy  them.  Of  Forsyth 
the  following  opinion  was  written  by  Force  in  this 
controversy:  "No  matter  how  widely  he  may  have 
differed  from  us  in  opinion *  [he]  has  acted  with  candour 
and  fairness  in  the  whole  matter." 

4.    The  Work  Published 

In  December,  1837,  was  published  the  long  ex 
pected  first  volume.  It  bore  the  title,  "American 
Archives :  consisting  of  a  collection  of  Authentick 
Records,  State  Papers,  Debates,  and  Letters  and 
Other  Notices  of  Publick  Affairs,  the  Whole  Forming 
A  Documentary  History  of  the  Origin  and  Progress 
of  the  North  American  Colonies;  of  the  Causes  and 
Accomplishment  of  the  American  Revolution;  and 
of  the  Constitution  of  Government  for  the  United 
States,  to  the  Final  Ratification  thereof."  There  were 
to  be  six  series  as  follows:  1.  From  the  discovery  of 
the  continent  to  1688 ;  2.  From  1688  to  1763 ;  3.  From 
1763  to  the  king's  message  to  parliament,  March  7, 
1774;  4.  From  March  7,  1774,  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  1776;  5.  From  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  to  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain, 
1783  ;  and  6.  From  1783  to  the  adoption  of  the  consti 
tution,  1789.  From  this  statement  it  is  evident  that 

1  Force  to  Clarke,  January  7,  1836,  Force  MSS. 


AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

the  compilers  had  yielded  nothing  to  the  reiterated 
demand  for  a  short  series. 

The  volume  which  appeared  in  1837  was  the  first 
of  the  fourth  series.  In  a  dignified  preface  were  ex 
plained  the  purpose  and  plan  of  the  compilers.  "We 
now  submit  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,"  it 
began,  "the  first  fruits  of  our  long  and  arduous  la 
bours.  We  offer  the  present  volume  as  a  specimen  of 
the  manner  in  which  our  work  will  be  accomplished. 
The  undertaking  in  which  we  have  embarked  is,  em 
phatically,  a  National  one :  National  in  its  scope  and 
object,  its  end  and  aim."  Other  nations  had  been 
making  collections  of  their  original  documents  at  great 
expense  and  with  vast  amounts  of  labor,  notably  the 
collections  made  in  England  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Record  Commission,  and  in  France  under  the  super 
vision  of  the  minister  of  public  instruction  in  accordance 
with  the  suggestions  of  M.  Guizot.  If  such  collections 
were  made  abroad,  was  there  not  more  reason  that 
they  should  be  made  in  the  United  States  while  it  was 
possible  to  gather  up  a  very  large  part  of  the  necessarily 
transient  material  ere  it  was  destroyed  ? 

The  volume  began  with  the  king's  message  to  par 
liament,  March  7,  1774,  in  reference  to  the  "disturb 
ances  in  America,"  and  contained  the  proceedings 
thereupon  with  other  proceedings  in  relation  to  the 
state  of  affairs  in  the  colonies,  extending  to  May, 
1775,  in  all  over  three  hundred  folio  pages,  reprinted 
from  British  official  sources.  The  rest  of  the  book 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER 

was  filled  with  proceedings  of  the  assemblies  and  coun 
cils  of  individual  colonies,  the  journals  of  congress, 
copies  of  the  proceedings  of  committees  of  correspond 
ence,  and  many  important  letters  by  individuals. 
The  time  covered  was  about  fourteen  months.  The 
same  rate  of  progress  was  not  to  be  maintained  in  the 
succeeding  volumes. 

The  second  volume  of  the  fourth  series  came  next, 
October,  1839.  It  was  followed  by  others  in  the  fol 
lowing  order  :  the  third  volume,  December,  1840 ;  the 
fourth  in  April,  1843;  the  fifth  in  April,  1844;  and 
the  sixth,  completing  the  series,  in  March,  1846. 
The  five  volumes  following  the  first  dealt  with  a  period 
of  a  little  more  than  a  year.  The  first  volume  of  the 
fifth  series  appeared  in  April,  1848 ;  the  second  in 
May,  1851 ;  and  the  third  in  January,  1853.  At  this 
point  publication  was  suspended. 

Actual  publication  did  not  remove  the  friction  with 
congress.  The  process  of  getting  money  out  of  the 
treasury  to  pay  for  work  already  done  proved  very 
hard  for  Clarke  and  Force.  In  November,  1839, 
when  the  material  for  the  second  volume  was  about 
to  be  printed,  Clarke,  anxiously  observing  the  trend 
of  events,  discovered  that  the  item  relating  to  it  had 
not  been  put  into  the  printed  general  appropriation 
bill,  then  being  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  committee. 
This  seemed  ominous.  Inquiry  elicited  the  fact  that 
it  had  not  been  sent  to  the  ways  and  means  committee, 
which  was  still  more  alarming.  Clarke  wrote  to 


264  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

Force:  "I  don't  like  this:  I  wish  you  would  look 
about  it.  My  patience  has  been  so  much  tried  that  I 
cannot  trust  myself  to  talk  with  them  for  fear  of  in 
sulting  them.  You  can  command  your  temper  better. 
See  Stubbs  and  Forsyth  and  Woodbury  to-day,  if 
you  get  this  in  time."  1  The  following  letter,  dated 
February  20,  1839,  and  addressed  to  Hon.  James  J. 
McKay,  of  North  Carolina,  is  an  illustration  of  an 
other  kind  of  annoyance : 

"Sir :  —  I  received  to-day  at  two  o'clock,  a  paper  without  address, 
name,  or  verification,  but  which  is,  I  presume,  a  copy  of  a  Resolu 
tion  adopted  by  the  Committee  on  the  Public  Printing,  of  which 
you  are  the  Chairman,  directing  an  examination  of  the  Printing  and 
Printer's  accounts,  for  the  House  of  Representatives  for  the  23d 
and  24th  congresses.  It  was  left  at  my  office  in  my  absence,  this 
forenoon,  by  Mr.  Kincaid,  foreman  of  the  Globe  office,  with  a  verbal 
request  that  I  would  attend  at  the  Treasury,  at  three  o'clock  to 
enter  upon  the  examinations. 

"It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  comply  with  the  request  of 
the  committee,  were  it  possible  to  do  so :  but  the  great  number  of 
documents  and  accounts  to  be  examined,  and  the  numerous  calcula 
tions  that  must  necessarily  be  made  by  myself,  before  I  could  assent 
to  any  Report,  would,  in  my  opinion,  occupy,  of  the  time  I  could 
devote  to  such  a  purpose,  at  least  a  month,  instead  of  three  days  to 
which  the  time  is  limited.  As  I  could  make  no  statement  under 
the  Resolution,  but  one  founded  on  my  own  careful  and  deliberate 
examination,  and  as  the  time  is  inadequate  to  such  an  examination, 
I  feel  myself  obliged  to  decline  attempting  it.  I  have  the  honor 
to  be  very  respectfully,  etc." 

In  this  letter  Force  shows  his  nature  most  charac 
teristically.  Rigid  and  bold,  he  was  the  last  man  to 

1  Clarke  to  Force,  November  28,  1839,  Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER         265 

leap  when  the  whip  of  authority  cracked.  He  knew 
his  rights  under  his  contract,  and  no  threat  of  a  pre 
suming  chairman  of  committee  could  frighten  him. 

He  was  not  yet  done  with  McKay.  In  June,  1840, 
two  pointed  questions  came  from  the  gentleman.  The 
first  referred  to  the  charge  that  Force's  work  was  not 
valuable,  that  he  merely  printed  material  from  the 
department  of  state,  convenient  at  hand,  and  from 
newspapers,  books,  and  other  printed  sources.  This 
charge  implied  that  good  faith  was  not  kept  with  the 
government.  McKay  asked  what  portion  of  the 
"Documentary  History"  was  from  printed  sources 
and  what  part  was  taken  from  documents  in  the  state 
department. 

Force  replied  at  length,  urging  the  wisdom  of  not 
confining  himself  to  manuscript  materials.  Much 
of  the  printed  matter  was  so  rare  that  it  was  in 
accessible,  and  he  asserted  that  this  kind  of  material 
was  the  most  difficult  to  collect.  He  thought  about 
three-fourths  of  the  papers  in  the  first  volume  and 
one-half  the  matter  in  the  second  volume  were  such 
as  had  previously  been  printed;  and  that  not  more 
than  fifty  pages  of  the  first  and  one-fourth  of  the 
second  were  from  manuscripts  in  the  state  depart 
ment.  The  residue  of  each  volume  was  from  manu 
scripts  obtained  elsewhere. 

McKay  asked  a  second  question,  "What  is  the  ex 
pense  for  Printing,  Paper,  and  Binding  of  each  of  the 
volumes  now  published?"  Force  said:  "To  this  I 


AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

answer,  that  for  fifteen  hundred  copies  of  each  volume 
it  amounts  to  about  $11,000;  or  $7,33j  per  copy." 
Force's  reply  to  the  chairman  of  the  committee  was 
dated  June  26,  1840.1 

In  1843  the  affairs  of  Clarke  and  Force  came  to  a 
turning-point.  Clarke  this  year  gave  up  connection 
with  the  enterprise,  and  John  C.  Rives,  partner  of 
F.  P.  Blair  in  the  publication  of  the  Globe,  took  his 
place.2  His  withdrawal  was  probably  an  advantage 
to  the  enterprise.  Friction  had  appeared  between  the 
two  men,  and  that  may  have  been  the  reason  of  the 
dissolution.  In  March  1843,  we  find  Force  protest 
ing  to  an  assistant  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  because  Clarke  had  se 
cured  an  order  for  the  payment  of  more  than  $5000 
for  a  number  of  volumes  congress  had  bought  for  the 
members.  It  seems  that  Clarke,  then  olerk  of  the  House, 
had  issued  an  order  to  himself  and  pocketed  the  entire 
sum.  Force  gave  notice  that  Clarke  did  not  speak 
for  the  other  partner  and  that  he,  Force,  would  not 
deliver  the  books  in  fulfillment  of  the  transaction.3 

At  the  same  time  Force  was  able  to  clear  up  his 
relations  with  congress.  In  the  general  appropria 
tion  bill  of  March  3,  1843,  was  introduced  a  clause  to 
pay  Clarke  and  Force  $6,826  due  for  more  than  two 
years  on  volume  two,  and  $27,650,  the  whole  cost  of 

1  Force  MSS. 

2  Force  to  John  C.  Rives,  March  28,  1843;   Rives  to  Force,  March  29, 
1843.     Force  MSS. 

3  Force  to  Robert  Johnson,  March  16,  1843.     Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        267 

volume  three,  published  in  the  preceding  December. 
This  money  was  to  be  paid  only  on  condition  that  the 
owners  should  in  ten  days  agree  that  the  whole  work 
was  not  to  contain  more  than  twenty  volumes  at  an 
average  cost  of  $20,400  each,  and  that  the  secretary 
of  state  must  pass  on  all  the  matter  that  went  into  the 
series.1  More  than  once  during  the  past  ten  years  of 
wrangling  the  compilers  had  expressed  themselves 
as  willing  to  accept  these  terms.  Failure  to  accept 
them  seems  to  have  been  due  to  congress,  which  was 
unwilling  to  give  the  publishers  the  benefit  of  a  twenty 
volume  contract,  hoping  to  deny  to  them  proper  com 
pensation  for  their  efforts,  and  otherwise  to  tease 
them  into  a  more  disastrous  surrender. 

Probably  the  adjustment  of  1843  was  in  some  meas 
ure  due  to  the  fact  that  both  branches  of  congress 
were  whig.  Seizing  the  opportunity  Force  quickly 
issued  volumes  four  and  five  and  carried  six  so  far 
forward  that  it  was  nearly  off  the  press  when  the 
democratic  administration  of  Polk  came  into  exist 
ence.2  Buchanan,  new  head  of  the  state  department, 
now  controlled  the  fate  of  the  "American  Archives." 
Force  sent  to  him,  May  31,  1847,  a  statement  of  the 
materials  to  be  included  in  volume  one  of  the  fifth 
series.  They  were  in  four  chief  divisions  as  follows : 
1.  The  proceedings,  papers,  and  correspondence  of 

1  Peters,  "TJ.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,"  V,  641. 

2  Although  the  title  page  has  the  date  1846,  there  appears  at  the  end  of 
the  volume  the  date  May  20,  1845,  indicating  that  the  printer  finished  his 
work  at  that  time. 


268  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

the  continental  congress;  2.  The  same  documents 
of  the  assemblies,  conventions,  and  councils  of  safety 
of  the  several  states;  3.  The  same  documents  of  the 
British  government  and  of  the  officers  acting  for  it 
in  our  revolution;  and  4.  "Letters  and  Papers,  not 
included  in  the  preceding  enumeration,  which  relate 
to,  and  are  necessary  to  illustrate  the  events  of  the 
period  of  the  Revolution."  1  All  these  classes  of 
papers  were  to  be  such  as  related  to  the  events  be 
tween  the  adoption  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  and  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  August  27,  1776. 
Buchanan  rejected  the  fourth  division. 

Soon  followed  another  Whig  administration.  To 
John  M.  Clayton,  secretary  of  state,  Force  sent,  April 
18,  1849,  a  statement  of  materials  for  two  volumes, 
second  and  third  of  series  five.  No  objection  was 
made,  and  they  appeared  in  1851  and  1853  respect 
ively.  The  division  of  matter  was  the  same  in  the 
statement  to  Clayton  as  in  that  made  to  Buchanan. 

It  would  have  been  better  for  Force  if  he  had  sent 
another  volume  before  the  Whigs  gave  up  office.  In 
1853  a  democratic  administration  came  into  power, 
and  William  L.  Marcy  became  secretary  of  state. 
February  12,  1855,  Force  sent  him  a  statement  of  the 
character  of  the  contents  of  volumes  four  and  five  of 
the  fifth  series  —  using  the  fourfold  divisions  he  had 
used  in  previous  similar  statements.  Two  months 
later  he  wrote  to  the  secretary  as  follows  : 

1  Force  to  Buchanan,  May  31,  1847,  Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER 

"I  have  the  honour  to  submit,  herewith,  for  your  examination,  a 
quantity  of  the  Papers  collected  for  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  volumes 
of  the  Fifth  Series  of  the  American  Archives,  having  been  informed 
that  you  consider  such  an  examination  indispensable."  1 

The  note  was  short  and  to  the  point,  as  were  all  of 
Force's  communications;  but  it  brought  no  answer. 
Finally,  on  November  1,  after  six  months  of  silence, 
came  a  note  from  the  secretary  which  ran  as  follows : 

"P.  Force,  Esq. ;  I  should  be  pleased  to  see  you  in  regard  to 
the  documents  which  you  left  with  me  for  examination.  Yours 
truly,  W.  L.  Marcy." 

Peter  Force  has  left  no  written  account  of  what 
happened  in  the  interview  that  followed;  and  the  ac 
count  left  by  a  friend  to  whom  he  talked  is  so  much 
at  variance  with  the  preserved  documents  that  it  is 
impossible  to  rely  upon  it.  The  essence  of  the  story 
is  that  Marcy  said:  "I  don't  believe  in  your  work, 
sir !  It  is  of  no  use  to  anybody.  I  never  read  a  page 
of  it,  and  never  expect  to."  2  No  other  answer  was 
ever  given  to  the  persistent  compiler  by  the  strong 
tempered  Marcy.  Force  was  compelled  to  realize 
that  it  was  the  end  of  his  enterprise.  His  hope  re 
vived  in  1857,  when  Lewis  Cass,  a  man  of  literary 
pretensions,  became  secretary  of  state.  To  him  was 
sent  a  statement  in  the  usual  form,  with  the  request 
that  the  materials  be  approved  for  the  fourth  and  fifth 
volumes  of  the  fifth  series,  carrying  the  story  of  the 

1  Force  to  Marcy,  Feb.  12  (2) ;  April  18,  1855,  Force  MSS. 

2  G.  W.  Greene,  "Col.  Peter  Force  —  the  American  Annalist"  (Mag.  of 
Amer.  Hist.,  Vol.  II,  p.  229). 


270  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

revolution  to  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne.  But  Cass 
gave  no  encouragement.  The  publication  of  "The 
American  Archives"  was  thus  suspended. 

Before  condemning  Marcy  we  should  consider  his 
point  of  view.  He  had  before  him  a  work  that  had 
been  authorized  in  a  careless  moment  by  congress 
twenty-two  years  earlier.  It  was  vastly  expensive. 
At  that  time  it  had  cost  $228,710,  which  was  56.1  per 
cent.1  of  the  $408,000  authorized  in  the  adjustment 
of  1843.  It  would  have  been  as  much  as  could  be  ex 
pected  if  the  work  reached  the  end  of  1778,  had  it 
gone  on  uninterrupted.  If  it  had  proceeded  at  the 
ordinary  rate  until  it  contained  the  material  up  to 
1789  it  would  have  cost  at  least  $1,250,000  to  com 
plete  the  fifth  and  sixth  series,  and  it  is  hard  to  see 
how  the  first,  second,  and  third  could  have  been  pub 
lished  for  less  than  $1,000,000.  Such  a  liberal  ex 
penditure  the  government  at  that  time  could  not  be 
expected  to  make.  It  should  be  said,  also,  that  the 
assertion  that  Force  overcharged  for  the  volumes  is 
supported  by  the  fact  that  when  in  1879  a  proposition 
to  continue  the  series  was  under  consideration,  the 
public  printer  estimated  that  an  edition  of  one  thou 
sand  copies,  in  style  identical  with  Force's  volumes, 
could  be  issued  at  $4.00  a  volume.2 


1  The  estimate  is  based  on  the  agreed  price,  If  cents  a  page. 

2  Sen.  Miscel.  Doc.  No.  34,  46th  cong.,  1st  ses.     The  public  printer's 
estimates  are  apt  to  be  too  low,  but  still  there  was  room  for  ample  correc 
tion  without  discounting  the  argument. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        271 

Force  was  a  man  of  rigid  purpose.  Having  deter 
mined  that  the  country  should  have  a  work  in  which 
every  valuable  kind  of  historical  material  relating  to 
the  revolution  should  be  included,  he  never  relaxed 
his  purpose  to  carry  through  the  work  on  that  basis. 
A  more  practical  man  would  have  recognized  the 
weight  of  the  objection  to  reprinting  a  large  amount 
of  material  from  Hansard's  debates  of  the  British  Par 
liament,  and  from  the  published  laws  and  journals 
of  the  states  and  the  continental  congress.  Popular 
criticism,  however,  erred  in  trying  to  analyze  Force's 
motives.  It  assumed  that  he  used  these  materials 
merely  to  pad  a  work  which  yielded  him  a  good  profit. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  had  a  dream  of  a  vast  and  com 
plete  repository  of  revolutionary  history,  whose  very 
completeness  made  it  necessary  to  include  the  papers 
that  had  been  printed,  as  well  as  those  which  were  still 
in  manuscript. 

A  source  of  trouble  for  Force  was  the  habit  that  grew 
up  of  distributing  back  volumes  to  members  of  con 
gress  who  took  their  seats  after  the  regular  distribu 
tions.  As  there  were  from  one  hundred  to  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  new  members  in  each  congress  and  as  a 
member  once  on  the  list  for  the  distribution  received 
all  the  volumes  at  the  expense  of  the  public  as  long  as 
the  work  was  being  published,  the  cost  on  this  account 
grew  every  second  year  by  several  thousand  dollars.1 

1  Force  to  B.  B.  French,  March  20,  1845 ;  to  Robert  Johnson,  March  16, 
1843;  Force  to  .  .  .  .  February  22,  1847  (draft),  Force  MSS. 


272  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

It  was  an  insidious  form  of  jobbery;  for  what  con 
gress  would  refuse  to  make  itself  the  beneficiary  of 
the  habit,  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  a  bad  practice  ? 
Marcy  may  well  have  felt  that  this  was  another  reason 
why  he  himself  should  assume  the  responsibility  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  series. 

Force  is  not  to  be  described  as  an  editor.  The  mate 
rial  he  printed  was  rarely  illuminated  with  notes.  His 
task  was  to  collect  and  reproduce.  He  had  a  faculty 
for  detail  and  was  accurately  acquainted  with  the  out 
side  of  books  and  documents  relating  to  his  subject. 
He  seldom  ventured  into  the  field  of  authorship,  and 
then  in  such  small  attempts  that  he  cannot  be  called 
a  historian.  To  historical  scholarship  his  chief  serv 
ice  was  his  indefatigable  energy  in  collecting,  rather 
than  in  any  constructive  use  of  materials.  His 
"American  Archives"  is  nearly  forgotten:  it  is  not 
even  a  model  for  the  many  collections  that  have  been 
published  since  its  day.  Its  arrangement  is  poor, 
being  entirely  mechanical.  The  fourth  series  has  not 
even  a  good  index,  a  deficiency  which,  however,  was 
remedied  in  the  fifth  series. 

Force's  work  is  defective  because  he  did  not  secure 
and  incorporate  in  it  manuscript  materials  in  the 
British  public  offices.  His  excuse  that  he  could  not  get 
permission  to  make  copies  is  not  sufficient.  Sparks  in 
1828-1829  got  such  permission,  both  in  London  and  in 
Paris.  Force  made  applications  through  agents  and 
when  refused  allowed  the  matter  to  lie.  By  going 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        273 

to  London  himself,  he  could  probably  have  secured 
his  object.1 

Force  was  minutely  accurate  in  making  reproduc 
tions  of  documents,  and  in  this  respect  he  was  ahead 
of  most  men  of  his  time.  To  Sparks,  for  example, 
it  seemed  sufficient  to  give  the  text  of  a  letter  as  he 
thought  the  writer  of  it  might  desire  it  given.  Force 
had  the  more  correct  method  of  exact  reproduction, 
leaving  the  reader  to  determine  in  what  light  imper 
fections  of  style  should  be  viewed.  The  following 
letter  to  Joseph  Gales,  Jr.,  March  12,  1838,  will  show 
Force's  attitude  on  this  point,  and  give  an  idea  of  his 
knowledge  of  the  materials  that  passed  through  his 
hands.  He  wrote : 

"Dear  Sir:  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  furnish  the  information 
you  request,  in  your  note,  received  this  morning. 

"The  Journal  of  the  Congress  of  1774,  was  first  printed  under  an 
order  of  the  22d  of  October  of  that  year.  It  has  been  reprinted 
several  times  since.  The  best  of  the  old  editions  is  that  printed  by 
Robert  Aitken,  at  Philadelphia,  in  1777,  under  a  Resolution  of 
Congress  of  the  26th  of  September,  1776.  Folwell's  was  printed 
from  that,  and  Way  &  Gideon's  from  one  or  the  other  of  these.  It 
may  be  difficult  to  procure  Aitken's;  but  I  suppose  Folwell's 
may  be  obtained  in  Philadelphia  —  if  not  Way  &  Gideon's  can 
certainly  be  purchased  either  there  or  here  for  a  reasonable  price  — 
four  dollars  a  volume  or  thereabouts. 

"I  think  I  may  venture  to  say,  however,  that  the  best  copy  of 
the  Journal  of  that  Congress  will  be  found  in  the  volume  of  the 
Documentary  History  just  published.  In  the  preparation  of  this 
volume  I  examined  the  MSS.  Journal  carefully,  and  as  far  as 

1  See  Force  to  Obadiah  Rich,  Sept.  23, 1834  (2  letters,  drafts),  and  Rich 
to  Force,  Feb.  20  and  May  21,  1835,  and  Nov.  8,  1838.  Force  MSS. 


274  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

that  goes,  I  followed  it  closely.  Several  papers  omitted  there  were 
inserted  in  the  first  printed  copy ;  which,  besides  containing  these 
papers,  departed  from  it  in  some  other  respects.  I  have  noticed 
and  corrected  all  these  variations,  and  have  also  supplied  some 
other  matter  which  is  neither  in  the  MSS.  nor  in  the  printed  copies.1 
"You  may,  therefore,  if  you  can  confide  in  my  judgment,  refer 
Mr.  Reed  to  the  volume  I  have  named,  folio  893  to  939.  One  has, 
I  presume,  been  sent  to  the  Atheneum,  at  Philadelphia,  by  the 
Secretary  of  State.  Yours  etc.  P.F." 

Force's  reprint  of  the  journals  of  the  continental 
congress  compares  favorably  with  the  edition  of  the 
Library  of  Congress,  under  the  editorship  of  Mr. 
Worthington  C.  Ford  and,  later,  Mr.  Gailliard  Hunt. 
In  fact,  Mr.  Ford,  in  the  preface  of  volume  II  pays 
this  excellent  tribute  to  our  compiler:  "The  larger 
number  of  the  surviving  papers  [of  the  continental 
congress]  are  printed  in  Peter  Force's  'American 
Archives,'  and  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  if  he  did  not 
include  a  letter  or  a  report  in  that  monumental  com 
pilation,  it  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  Papers  of  the 
Continental  Congress  in  his  day."  2 

5.   Peter  Force  as  a  Collector 

In  collecting  the  vast  mass  of  copies  of  documents 
Force  came  into  contact  with  the  men  most  active  in 
the  field  of  historical  collecting  and  writing.  His 

1  Force  MSS.     The  text  gives  no  intimation  of  what  papers  are  "sup 
plied."     Two  foot-notes  are  given,  without  indication  of  the  sources,  though 
one  is  evidently  from  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  of  contemporary  date. — 
J.  S.  B. 

2  Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress,  Vol.  II,  p.  5. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        275 

correspondence  affords  us  an  interesting  view  of  the 
state  of  research  in  his  time ;  and  to  know  that  cannot 
fail  to  be  of  real  service  to  American  historical 
students  of  this  or  any  future  time.  There  was 
hardly  a  man  in  the  country  then  engaged  in  research 
who  did  not  write  to  Peter  Force.  Not  only  the  great 
collectors  and  the  minor  historians,  but  such  impor 
tant  major  writers  as  Jared  Sparks  and  George  Ban 
croft  are  thus  revealed  in  their  intimate  labors.  Most 
pertinent  of  all  in  this  place  is  the  view  we  have  of 
Force's  own  efforts  as  collector. 

"I  first  proposed  the  American  Archives,  and  drew 
up  the  plan  of  the  work,  in  1822.  Since  January, 
1830,  my  time  has  been  almost  wholly  occupied  in  col 
lecting  materials  for  it,  and  preparing  them  for  the 
press.  The  work  is  the  result  of  my  own  labour, 
and  the  copyright  belongs  to  myself  alone."  1  Thus 
wrote  Colonel  Force  in  1848.  Collecting  materials 
meant  buying  books,  newspapers,  and  pamphlets  as 
well  as  copying  manuscripts.  Of  the  first  class  he 
had  a  considerable  collection  when  he  formed  the 
partnership  with  Clarke.  He  soon  became  known 
to  the  dealers  in  second-hand  books  as  a  good  cus 
tomer,  and  with  some  of  the  large  dealers  in  the  chief 
cities  he  was  on  the  basis  of  a  preferential  customer, 
buying  largely  when  he  was  financially  able.  The 
invoices  preserved  with  his  papers  show  that  his  pur 
chases  were  not  exclusively  American,  as  the  following 
1  Force  to  Thomas  J.  Campbell,  August  19,  1848,  Force  MSS. 


276  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

items,  taken  at  random,  but  successively,  will  show: 
"Appianus,  $4.50;  Le  Blanc,  $3.75;  Proposals  for 
a  Q.  Settlement  in  Penn.,  $5.25;  Holyoke,  $4.50; 
Tryal  of  Py rates,  $5.00;  Agreement  between  Penn 
and  Baltimore,  $3.12;  Franciscans,  $5.25;  Ptolemy, 
$18.37;  Life  of  Whitefield,  $1.62;  3  Tracts  at  75  cts., 
$2.25  ;  Zeno,  $3.62."  A  man  who  wedged  in  Ptolemy 
between  the  Franciscans  and  the  Life  of  the  great 
preacher  of  Methodism  was  certainly  a  man  of  broad 
interests. 

The  following  letter  reveals  his  relations  with  the 
book  dealers,  and,  incidentally,  shows  his  interest  in 
books  on  the  art  of  printing : 

"Dear  Sir :  —  I  am  gratified  to  learn  from  yours  of  the  8th  in 
stant  you  can  furnish  all  the  books  ordered  in  mine  of  the  sixth. 
Annexed  is  an  additional  order.  I  thank  you  for  suggesting  Dibdin, 
but  Arres  [  ?]  must  serve  me  for  the  present.  I  have  several  works 
on  the  history  of  Printing,  and  a  few  early  printed  Books.  I  wish 
to  add  to  them  and  would  order  Pliny  (no.  2170)  but  I  think  the 
price  too  high.  I  have  not  added  Hakluyt  to  the  list  solely  from 
an  apprehension  that  I  may  find  the  Bill  without  it  inconveniently 
large.  Has  your  Discovery  of  America  by  the  Welch  been  pub 
lished  ?  Respectfully  etc."  l 

Again  Force  wrote: 

"I  have  received  your  two  letters.  I  will  attend  to  the  nomina 
tion  of  the  gentlemen  you  named  for  Corresponding  Members  of 
the  Institute.  There  has  been  no  meeting  since,  and  probably 
there  will  be  none  before  November.  Mr.  Broadhead  called  upon, 

1  Force  to  John  R.  Bartlett,  of  New  York,  July  9,  1776  [*icj.  Bartlett 
was  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Bartlett  and  Welford,  booksellers.  He  was  the 
author  of  "Bibliotheca  Americana"  and  other  bibliographical  works. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        277 

and  spent  an  hour  or  so  with  me.  You  know  what  has  been  done 
about  the  appointment  of  secretary.  What  will  be  done  hereafter 
it  is  impossible  to  conjecture.  Mr.  Marsh  should  have  been  one  of 
the  Regents. 

"I  was  much  mortified  with  my  seeming  want  of  courtesy  to  Mr. 
Ludewig.  I  could  not  intentionally  omit  to  thank  him  for  his  kind 
ness  to  myself,  or  for  his  extremely  well  executed  Book,  for  which  he 
is  entitled  to  the  thanks  of  all  who  desire  to  read  or  to  study 
the  History -of  this  country.  Enclosed  are  your  two  Lists.  The 
twenty-eight  books  I  have  marked  you  will  please  send  me.  I  have, 
just  now,  occasion  for  Herrera,  Barcia,  Pigafetta,  Cardenas,  Nava- 
rete,  De  Laet,  and  Hollingshed.  .Will  you  return  the  lists  with  the 
Books?"1 

Force  was  an  omnivorous  reader,  and  it  is  probable 
that  he  desired  these  books  for  his  personal  use.  He 
was  not  at  that  time  engaged  in  any  investigation  that 
would  have  required  works  of  such  varying  character 
as  Holinshed  and  Navarete. 

To  Hermann  E.  Ludewig,  mentioned  in  the  letter 
above,  he  wrote  in  1857  as  follows : 

"You  are  mistaken,  my  dear  sir,  in  supposing  that  nobody  takes 
an  interest  in  your  American  bibliographical  researches.  All  who 
take  an  interest  in  American  history  must  acknowledge  the  value 
of  your  Book,  and  thank  you  for  the  industry,  perseverance,  and 
especially  the  ability,  you  have  shown  in  the  preparation  of  it. 
It  was  unfair  to  throw  the  expense  of  publication  on  one  who  had 

1  Force  to  John  R.  Bartlett,  September  11,  1846,  Force  MSS.  The 
"Broadhead"  mentioned  here  was  probably  J.  R.  Brodhead,  of  New  York; 
and  the  position  mentioned  seems  to  have  been  the  secretaryship  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  Herman  E.  Ludewig  was  a  Saxon  bibliographer 
who  arrived  in  America  in  1844.  He  published  his  "  Literature  of  American 
Local  History  "  in  1846  at  his  own  expense.  The  edition  was  given  away  by 
the  author,  who  received  acknowledgments  from  only  thirty  of  the  recipients. 


278  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

voluntarily  incurred  the  expense  of  preparing  it  for  the  press.  For 
a  second  edition,  with  your  additions,  it  must  be  arranged  other 
wise.  I  am  sure  you  could  make  some  additions  here,  where  I 
should  be  glad  to  see  you  at  any  time,  while  I  hope  for  the  pleasure 
of  meeting  you  in  New  York  the  coming  summer.  I  wish  I  lived 
nearer  our  friend  Gowans,  or  rather,  I  wish  he  lived  nearer  me, 
(for  I  cannot  change  my  location).  I  never  visit  his  collection 
without  meeting  with  something  desirable." l 

Among  other  correspondents  were  Lyman  C. 
Draper,  Charles  Deane,  Henry  Onderdonck,  J.  B. 
Moore,  Samuel  G.  Drake,  George  Li vermore,  William 
B.  Reed,  and  Buckingham  Smith,  all  men  of  note  in 
some  special  field  of  history.  To  most  of  these 
men  Force  was  an  object  of  high  consideration,  and 
a  source  from  which  came  help  of  many  kinds.  Ly 
man  C.  Draper  wrote  in  1847  —  then  in  his  thirty- 
third  year  —  "Upwards  of  a  year  since  I  took  the 
liberty  of  sending  you  a  printed  circular  explaining 
my  aims  and  my  historical  collections.  Limited  and 
unimportant  as  they  are,  compared  with  your  great 
researches  and  achievements,  I  yet  hope,  in  my  humble 
way,  to  effect  something  for  the  biographical  literature 
of  our  country."  2 

John  H.  Wheeler,  author  of  an  indifferent  history 
of  North  Carolina,  wrote  as  follows  in  acknowledg 
ment  of  the  aid  he  had  received:  "You  will  receive 
by  this  mail,  the  first  form  of  my  History  of  North 
Carolina.  Your  god-child,  for  whom  at  the  baptismal 

1  From  an  undated  draft  in  reply  to  Ludewig's  letter  of  Oct.  6,  1857. 
Force  MSS.  2  September  20,  1847.  Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        279 

font  you  are  made  to  stand,  is  before  you.  I  fear  al 
most  that  you  will  disown  the  ungainly  bantling. 
But  *  it  must  be  so,  Plato ' ;  and  perhaps  after  all  it 
may  do,  as  it  is  'only  for  Buncombe'  that  the  work  is 
written.  Let  me  hear  from  you  by  return  mail,  and 
your  opinion  as  to  the  typography ;  and  your  sugges 
tions  will  be  respectfully  heeded."  In  another  letter 
Wheeler  speaks  of  Force,  Bancroft,  and  Governor 
Swain  as  "having  stood  at  the  fount  as  sponsors  for 
my  bantling."  l 

From  Edward  D.  Ingraham,  of  Philadelphia,  came 
a  letter  which  must  have  startled  the  collector.  It 
was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  request  for  the  loan 
of  a  rare  copy  of  Archibald  London's  "Indian  Narra 
tive,"2  which  a  "client  of  mine"  wished  to  publish  in 
a  "  superior  edition."  The  writer  gave  assurance  that 
the  book  would  be  returned  if  the  new  edition  was  not 
published.  Force  said  in  reply:  "I  will  lend  you 
Loudon  with  great  pleasure  to  be  returned  to  me  safe 
and  sound,  in  the  same  condition  it  now  is ;  but  there 
is  an  awful  squinting  in  your  'unless,'  etc.  that  alarms 
me.  A  copy  of  a  new  edition,  no  matter  how  supe 
rior,  would  not  replace  this  old  one  on  my  shelves. 
Will  not  a  MS  copy  serve  to  print  from?  I  would 
rather  make  one  than  have  my  Book  destroyed;  and 
I  would  much  rather  copy  it  twice  than  disoblige  you, 

1  July  3  and  September  13,  1851.     Force  MSS. 

2  Loudon,  Archibald,  "Interesting  Narratives  of  Outrages  Committed 
by  the  Indians  in  their  Wars  on  White  People,"   2  vols.,  Carlisle   [Pa.], 
1808-1811. 


280  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  so  many  favours."  1  In- 
graham  was  a  man  of  education,  a  lawyer  of  ability, 
and  a  bibliophile.  It  is,  therefore,  amazing  that  he 
should  have  thought  a  rare  book,  mutilated  in  the 
hands  of  the  printers,  could  be  replaced  by  a  copy 
from  a  new  edition. 

Of  all  the  collectors  with  whom  Force  came  into 
contact  the  most  notable  was  Henry  Stevens,  second 
of  the  name,  probably  the  prince  of  Americans  who 
were  accustomed  to  collect  and  dispose  of  old  Ameri 
can  books,  pamphlets,  and  manuscripts.  Stevens's 
father,  likewise  called  Henry,  was  himself  a  collector. 
He  lived  in  Barnet,  Vermont,  and  made  a  thorough 
search  of  Vermont  garrets  for  material  on  the  history 
of  the  state.  His  researches  brought  together  the 
greatest  treasury  of  Vermont  history  that  has  been 
seen  in  one  place.  Left  in  the  state  house  in  Mont- 
pelier,  it  suffered  severely  in  a  fire  which  destroyed 
the  building  in  1857.  Force  bought  duplicates  from 
him  and  a  friendship  existed  between  the  two  men. 
On  a  certain  Christmas  day  Stevens  wrote:  "I  have 
been  thinking  about  going  to  Washington  this  winter, 
but  how  to  manage  to  get  there,  as  yet  I  have  not  de 
termined.  If  I  could  sell  you  a  few  hundred  dollars 
worth  of  old  manuscripts,  from  four  to  six  hundred 
volumes  of  newspapers,  a  few  hundred  pamphlets  for 
a  reasonable  reward  over  and  above  expenses  I  might 
be  induced  to  make  you  one  more  visit.  Come, 

1  Force  to  E.  D.  Ingraham,  December  13,  1850.    Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER         281 

give  me  what  may  be  termed  solid  comfort.  I  will 
pack  up  and  clear  out  for  Washington.  Write  me 
soon  after  you  receive  this,  so  that  I  can  look  about 
and  consider  what  is  for  the  best."  1  Stevens,  senior, 
was  possessed  of  average  Vermont  shrewdness,  sharp 
ened  by  years  of  ferreting  in  garrets,  and  he  could  not 
restrain  its  working,  in  spite  of  his  genuine  admiration 
for  Force. 

His  son,  Henry  Stevens,  Junior,  was  to  be  a  greater 
man  than  the  collector  of  Barnet;  and  it  was  Force 
who  first  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  develop  his 
talents.  In  1843  the  young  man  was  a  senior  at  Yale, 
facing  financial  difficulties  which  threatened  to  in 
terrupt  his  stay  at  the  college.  By  some  means,  pos 
sibly  through  his  father,  he  became  acquainted  with 
Force  and  made  arrangements  to  copy  manuscripts 
for  him.  The  young  collegian  had  his  father's  faculty 
of  nosing  out  rare  materials,  and  Force  trusted  to  him 
to  select  what  was  valuable.  Students  were  employed 
to  do  the  actual  copying,  and  through  the  spring  many 
valuable  parcels  were  sent  to  Washington.  In  the 
autumn  of  1843  Stevens  entered  the  Harvard  law 
school.  He  was  in  debt  to  a  New  Haven  bank,  and 
Professor  Kingsley  had  become  his  security.  There 
was,  therefore,  more  reason  than  ever  that  he  should 
earn  money  by  copying.  To  his  earnest  plea  that  he 
should  go  on,  Force  at  first  refused  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  himself  in  need  of  money.  But  later  he 
1  December  25,  1851.  Force  MSS. 


282  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

relented  and  authorized  Stevens  to  furnish  copied 
manuscripts  to  the  amount  of  $350,  the  sum  for  which 
the  young  man  was  in  debt.1 

'  The  money  was  not  applied  to  the  debt,  and  Pro 
fessor  Kingsley  wrote  in  deep  concern  to  Force,  say 
ing  that  Stevens  gave  as  the  excuse  for  failure  to  pay 
that  Force  owed  him  money  for  copying,  and  asking 
that  Force  would  accept  a  draft  for  four  hundred  and 
fifteen  dollars.  To  this  request,  so  badly  based,  Force 
gave  a  polite  refusal.  To  Stevens  he  sent  the  amount 
then  due,  $253.76,  saying  that  he  had  informed  Kings- 
ley  of  the  fact,  and  directing  Stevens  to  cease  copy 
ing.2  Force  was  the  soul  of  honesty,  and  loose  meth 
ods  of  business  were  very  distasteful  to  him.  But 
the  two  men  were  mutually  necessary  to  one  another, 
and  the  estrangement  did  not  last  long.  A  year 
later  Stevens  was  collecting  manuscripts  and  send 
ing  books.  The  following  letter  written  to  him  will 
cast  interesting  light  on  the  methods  of  collecting 
in  general,  as  well  as  illustrate  the  personal  habits 
of  the  writer  of  it : 

"Dear  Sir :  I  have  just  received  by  the  express  yours  of  the  13th 
with  the  catalogue.  It  came  in  excellent  time.  I  was  about  leav 
ing  for  Boston  to-morrow  (at  great  inconvenience  to  my  business)  to 
attend  the  sale.  If  you  will  attend  and  buy  for  me  you  will  do 
me  a  great  favour.  I  want  the  books  I  have  marked.  Get  them  as 
cheap  as  you  can,  but  buy  all  that  do  not  sell  at  extravagant  prices. 

1  Force  to  H.  Stevens,  Jr.,  Dec.  27,  1843.     Force  MSS. 

2  Force  to  H.  Stevens,  Jr.,  Feb.  8,  1844,  to  J.  L.  Kingsley,  Feb.  8,  1844, 
Kingsley  to  Force,  Jan.  29,  1844.     Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        283 

Of  course  I  except  such  as  you  want  for  yourself.  The  auctioneers 
do  not  know  me;  but  I  suppose  they  will  be  satisfied  if  I  remit 
immediately  on  receiving  a  Bill,  and  before  any  Books  are  sent,  the 
balance  for  whatever  amount  you  buy  for  me,  above  the  two 
hundred  dollars  I  now  enclose.  Instead  of  returning  the  catalogue, 
I  annex  the  numbers  I  desire  of  the  first  day's  sale.  To-morrow  I 
will  send  you  the  2nd  and  3rd  Days.  Your  draft  will  be  attended 
to :  it  has  not  yet  been  presented.  I  very  much  wish  to  procure 
full  sets  of  the  old  copies  of  all  the  Colony  Laws,  and  will  take  any 
you  can  gather  for  me.  If  you  can  get  me  a  copy  of  Ingersoll's 
Letters  I  beg  you  to  send  it.  Respectfully,  etc."  1 

Stevens  had  previously  called  Force's  attention  to 
certain  manuscripts  to  be  included  in  the  sale,  and 
he  seems  to  have  suggested  that  George  Bancroft, 
then  in  Boston,  be  asked  to  look  over  them  and  advise 
him,  Stevens,  as  to  their  value.  In  reply  Force  said : 

"  With  regard  to  the  MSS,  I  am  unable  to  give  directions.  A  mere 
transcript,  no  matter  how  neatly  written,  without  evidence  of  its 
authenticity,  is  of  no  value  to  me.  I  am  unwilling  to  trouble  Mr. 
Bancroft,  but  may,  perhaps,  write  him  about  them.  It  is  proper 
to  say,  I  consider  this  a  matter  of  business  and  that  I  expect  to 
pay  you  a  commission  for  your  trouble."  2 

One  can  see  something  of  the  spirit  of  treasure-hunt 
ing  that  lent  a  glamour  to  the  life  of  a  collector  in  the 
suggestion  conveyed  by  Stevens  in  the  following  words, 
the  allusion  being  to  the  sale  above  mentioned:  "I 
think  there  will  be  no  long  pursed  competitors  in  the 
field.  The  Harvard  Library  has  already  many  of  the 
works.  Sparks  has  gone  to  Halifax,  and  all  the  anti- 

1  Force  to  Stevens,  July  19,  1844.     Force  MSS. 

2  Force  to  H.  Stevens,  July  20,  1844.     Force  MSS. 


284  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

quarians  of  the  Law  School  and  college  are  off.  Bartlett 
and  Welford's  agent  will  probably  be  the  only  high 
bidder."  The  sale  went  off  favorably,  Force  securing 
$485.57  worth  of  the  books.  Stevens  gives  us  a 
glimpse  of  still  another  side  of  book  collecting  in  the 
following :  "I  shall  have  a  tale  to  tell  you  of  the  wonder 
ful  conduct  of  our  George  B to  whom  you  wrote, 

and  who,  I  believe,  did  his  best  to  manoeuvre  me  out  of 
some  of  the  best  of  the  books,  particularly  no.  240."  l 
By  this  time  Stevens  had  drifted  far  into  the  current 
of  the  collector's  life.  Law,  which  he  still  called  his 
dearest  pursuit,  was  fast  receding  into  the  distance. 
From  Boston  he  made  many  journeys  into  the  interior, 
buying  books  freely  and  selling  them  where  he  could 
find  purchasers.  When  he  accumulated  a  quantity 
that  he  could  not  sell  privately  he  placed  them  with  an 
auctioneer.  He  was  an  ardent  buyer  and  was  apt 
to  purchase  rashly.  The  result  was  that  he  often 
lost  money.  In  the  spring  of  1845,  while  embar 
rassed,  he  got  Force  to  accept  a  draft  on  an  auction 
house  in  Boston,  claiming  that  the  house  owed  him 
several  hundred  dollars.  The  draft  was  drawn  in 
favor  of  a  Washington  man,  indorsed  by  Force,  and 
sent  to  Boston  for  collection,  where  it  was  promptly 
protested.  Force  waited  two  weeks  in  daily  expectation 
of  a  letter  from  the  agent.  When  none  came  he  wrote 
him  as  follows:  "I  paid  Mr.  Morrison,  with  the  ex- 

1  Stevens  to  Force.  July  15  and  27,  1844.    Force  MSS.    "George  B— " 
was  Bancroft, 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        285 

penses  on  the  draft,  $63.75,  and  expected  you  would 
immediately  replace  the  money,  without  being  re 
minded  of  the  necessity  of  your  doing  so.  Your  silence 
compels  me  to  request  you  will  send  me  the  amount, 
forthwith.  At  the  same  time  I  take  the  liberty  to 
advise  you,  never  hereafter,  under  any  circumstances, 
to  resort  again  to  such  an  expedient  to  raise  money. 
You  cannot  succeed  in  it  without  the  loss  of  friends  and 
of  character."  1 

This  reproof  brought  a  prompt  explanation.  The 
draft  was  issued,  said  Stevens,  in  the  faith  that  he  had 
funds  enough  to  meet  it  at  the  auctioneers'.  It  was 
protested  during  his  absence  from  Boston.  When  he 
returned  he  learned  of  the  occurrence,  went  to  the 
auctioneers,  and  was  told  that  his  balance  was  eighty- 
one  cents.  In  despair  he  ran  to  the  bank,  only  to 
learn  that  the  protested  draft  had  gone  back  to  Wash 
ington.  To  his  expressions  of  grief  the  bank  clerk 
gave  him  the  consoling  assurance  that  he  would  soon 
have  ample  opportunity  to  pay.  Stevens  wrote  very 
contritely,  accused  himself  of  lack  of  business  knowl 
edge,  and  made  a  strong  appeal  to  the  benevolence  of 
his  patron.  "I  cannot  bear  the  idea,"  he  said,  "that 
you,  to  whom  I  am  so  much  indebted  for  my  past 
successes,  and  for  the  facilities  afforded  me  in  my 
favorite  study,  should  have  occasion  to  withhold  the 
confidence  once  reposed  in  me ;  for  I  am  free  to  confess 
that  to  you,  more  than  to  all  others,  except  my  kind 

1  Force  to  Stevens,  April  8,  1845.     Force  MSS. 


286  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

father,  do  I  owe  my  education,  I  have  often  boasted 
of  you  as  a  friend,  and  hope  by  my  actions  hereafter  to 
merit  the  same  appellation." 

The  hard-hearted  patron  was  not  appeased.  He 
began  to  examine  his  invoices  of  books  more  carefully 
than  formerly,  and  the  conclusions  he  reached  prompted 
him  to  write  in  the  following  strain : 

"When  I  proposed  to  you  last  summer  to  collect  books  for  me, 
I  agreed  to  pay  you  a  fair  price  (without  regard  to  their  cost  to  you) 
for  what  you  might  gather  of  such  as  could  not  be  procured  in  the 
regular  way  of  purchasing,  and  were  without  an  ascertained  value ; 
but  it  was  expressly  understood  that  this  arrangement  did  not 
include  such  as  were  found  in  bookstores  or  on  sale  Catalogues  with 
fixed  prices:  on  such  I  was  to  pay  you  a  commission  merely.  I 
advanced  you  money  and  took  the  Books  you  offered  me,  without 
scrutiny,  at  your  own  prices.  On  the  present  occasion  I  have 
looked  into  it. 

"Of  the  whole  sent  me  on  the  18th  instant,  there  is  not  more 
than  one  for  which  I  will  give  what  you  ask.  The  prices  through 
out  are  extravagant.  The  two  lots,  of  144  for  75  cents  each,  and 
82  for  one  dollar  each,  I  would  not  take  in  the  lump,  as  you  say  you 
expect  me  to  do,  at  the  average  price  of  25  cents  each.  Of  those 
sent  on  the  5th  I  have  found  some  on  the  catalogues  from  which  I 
have  no  doubt  you  ordered.  For  instance,  I  find  the  price  of  Lettres 
Edifiante  [sic],  for  which  you  charge  [$]27.00  is  26  shillings; 
Norrici  [?],  $3.75,  is  four  shillings;  Mirror  of  Cruelty,  $4.50, is  ten 
shillings ;  Fernandez  Relation,  $10.00,  is  ten  shillings  and  sixpence : 
Gage,  $5.75,  is  four  shillings  and  sixpence ;  and  so  of  others.  The 
catalogue  price  of  the  five  I  have  named  is  fifty-five  shillings,  and 
you  have  charged  me  for  them  fifty-six  dollars!  The  Bookseller's 
commission  for  importing  the  same  books  would  not  exceed  ten 
per  cent.  I  find  others  in  the  same  bill,  on  Towne's  Catalogue, 
which  you  probably  purchased  of  Mr.  Morrison,  in  this  city,  charged 
at  more  than  four  times  his  price.  I  now  write  to  inquire  if  you 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        287 

adhere  to  the  prices  you  have  fixed  in  your  Bills ;  if  you  do,  write 
me,  at  once,  and  I  will  return  you  the  Books  immediately.  Re 
spectfully  &c." 

To  this  protest  Stevens  replied  that  he  had  charged 
the  same  prices  that  Harvard  College,  Messrs.  Dowse, 
C.  Dean,  Lawrence,  Livermore,  Chapin,  Crownin- 
shield,  Norton,  and  Bowditch  paid  him.  But  he  added : 
"I  am  convinced  I  have  charged  you,  in  the  aggregate 
extravagant  prices " ;  and  he  proposed  that  Force 
should  deduct  twenty  per  cent,  on  one  and  twenty-five 
per  cent,  on  another  of  the  bills  complained  of,  and  send 
back  all  the  books  he  did  not  wish  at  these  reductions.1 

At  this  time  the  course  of  Henry  Stevens,  Jr.,  in 
America  was  nearly  run.  He  had,  as  he  said  in  the 
letter  just  cited,  established  a  trade  with  the  wealthy 
Boston  collectors ;  and  he  had  sold  to  them  at  liberal 
profits.  He  was  about  to  be  translated  to  a  wider 
sphere  of  activity.  Some  of  his  rich  patrons,  among 
them  Messrs.  John  Carter  Brown,  of  Providence, 
Governor  Slade,  of  Vermont,  and  J.  R.  Brodhead,  of 
New  York,  sent  him  to  London  to  search  the  market 
for  rare  Americana.  Before  this  time  Obadiah  Rich, 
of  London,  had  sold  many  of  the  books  ordered  by 
Americans ;  and  now  and  then  some  New  York  or 
Boston  dealer  would  go  to  England  and  run  through  the 
stalls  to  see  what  he  could  find.  It  was  in  the  latter 

1  For  this  correspondence  see  Stevens  to  Force,  April  12,  1845,  Force 
to  Stevens,  April  27,  1845,  and  Stevens'  reply.  May  4,  1845.  Force 

MSS. 


288  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

capacity  that  Stevens  reached  London.  He  examined 
the  London  shops  thoroughly,  visited  the  out-of-town 
booksellers,  and  finally  met  Panizzi,  the  head  of  the 
British  Museum,  who  was  so  impressed  with  him  that  he 
gave  him  an  order  to  purchase  books  on  America  for  that 
great  library.1  It  was  an  unlimited  order,  and  carried 
with  it  admission  to  every  part  of  the  Museum.  Rich 
was  completely  overshadowed  by  the  young  American, 
and  the  other  booksellers  were  in  despair.  Bartlett, 
of  New  York,  wrote  to  Force  in  these  words :  "  Soon 
after  my  return  from  Washington  our  Mr.  Welford 
went  to  London.  He  writes  me  that  our  friend  Hy. 
Stevens  is  the  great  monopolist  of  American  books  in 
London.  He  not  only  buys  everything  of  value, 
but  prevents  all  the  respectable  dealers  from  selling 
to  others.  .  .  .  The  fact  is,  he  has  some  rich  cus 
tomer's  in  Boston  and  Providence,  and  I  understand 
that  he  makes  them  pay  high  prices.  He  is  also  em 
ployed  at  the  British  Museum,  and  has  free  access  to 
every  part  of  the  institution.  Mr.  Welford  has  been  in 
London  more  than  three  months  and  has  not  been  able 
to  send  me  a  single  book  on  America  of  variety  or 
value."  2 

The  prosperity  of  the  young  American  did  not  wipe 
out  immediately  the  resentment  Force  had  felt  in  1845. 

1  It  was  in  this  year,  1845,  that  Panizzi  made  his  most  celebrated  report 
on  the  reorganization  of  the  library  of  the  British  Museum.     He  pointed 
out  the  deficiencies  in  the  collection  of  printed  books,  and  parliament  was 
led  to  vote  £10,000  annually  to  keep  up  the  collection. 

2  Bartlett  to  Force,  July  8,  1846.     Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        289 

The  short  business  letters  Stevens  wrote  seem  to  have 
remained  unanswered.  It  was  not  until  1848  that 
correspondence  was  resumed  between  the  two  men. 
In  1851  the  last  trace  of  harshness  was  gone,  as  we  may 
learn  from  the  letter  that  follows.  Force  wrote : 

"I  wrote  you  last  week  by  Mr.  Cunningham,  who  is  on  his  way 
to  England,  to  see  the  Elephant.  I  hope  you  will  give  him  the 
benefit  of  some  of  your  London  experience  :  it  will  be  of  great  value 
to  him.  I  have  had  much  to  do  with  old  England  for  some  months 
past,  in  the  way  of  'Contributions'  to  the  great  Industrial  Exhibi 
tion,  and  I  have  been  urged  to  present  myself  to  the  Royal  Com 
missioners  in  London,  as  one  of  the  'natural  products'  of  America. 
I  had  a  strong  desire,  too,  to  go ;  not  altogether  to  visit  the  Crystal 
Palace,  (though  I  have  no  doubt  that  will  be  worth  looking  at)  but 
to  learn  something  certain  about  the  quantity  and  accessibility  of 
the  papers  relating  to  America,  preserved  in  the  State  Paper  office, 
and  other  depositories  about  the  Metropolis.  I  supposed  that  in 
three  or  four  months  a  general  examination  might  be  made;  but 
I  learn  from  an  article  in  the  March  number  of  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  they  are  guarded  by  such  a  fearful  array  of  bars,  and 
fees,  and  favours  of  office,  that  they  must  be  totally  inaccessible  to 
one  who  desires  to  obtain  a  general  knowledge  of  what  there  is 
there  that  he  wants.  There  is  at  least  one  black  spot  of  the  Dark 
Ages  of  Albion  not  yet  rubbed  out.  So,  I  shall  not  visit  Mr.  John 
Bull  this  year.  .  .  . 

"Brunet1  gives  four  early  editions  of  Froissart's  Chronicles. 
The  1st  without  date ;  2d,  1505 ;  3d,  1518 ;  and  4th,  1530.  All 
these  editions,  if  they  exist,  should  be  in  the  British  Museum.2  You 
will  much  oblige  me  by  making  an  examination  and  a  comparison 
of  the  first  volume  of  each  edition,  and  when  you  write  let  me 
know  in  what  respect  they  severally  differ.  It  would  tax  your  time 

1  Jacques-Charles  Brunet,  a  celebrated  French  bibliographer. 

2  The  publication  of  the  British  Museum  catalogue  began  in  1841,  when 
the  letter  A  was  published.     It  was  not  carried  further  until  1881. 


290  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

too  much,  or  I  would  ask  you  for  a  similar  examination  and  report 
on  each  of  the  volumes.     I  don't  believe  in  Brunet's  four  editions."  l 

These  extracts  from  Force's  letters  give  us  a  view 
of  his  activity  as  a  collector.  Although  he  read  con 
stantly  and  knew  a  great  deal  about  miscellaneous 
things,  he  can  hardly  be  called  a  great  scholar  in 
history.  In  fact,  he  lacked  early  educational  advan 
tages,  and  the  effect  is  seen  in  all  he  did.  As  his 
friends  said  to  him  in  1851,  he  was  a  natural  product  of 
America.  But  nature  gave  him  a  genius  for  historical 
collecting,  a  gift  which  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
expanded  into  larger  proportions,  if  he  had  been  so 
fortunate  in  his  early  life  as  to  have  enjoyed  the  oppor 
tunities  of  a  sound  and  liberal  education. 

6.    Other  Activities  of  Peter  Force 

One  of  the  outcomes  of  his  collecting  of  rare  Ameri 
cana  was  the  four  volumes  of  "  Tracts  and  other  Papers 
relating  to  the  Origin,  Settlement,  and  Progress  of  the 
Colonies  in  North  America."  The  first  appeared  in 
1836,  the  second  in  1838,  the  third  in  1844,  and  the 
fourth  in  1846.  In  an  "Advertisement"  the  compiler 
explained  that  he  had  experienced  much  difficulty  in 
collecting  the  early  pamphlets  and  tracts  on  the  colo 
nies.  Of  the  vast  number  that  were  issued  only  a  few 
had  survived  the  waste  of  time,  and  these  few  were  in 
libraries  connected  with  public  institutions.  It  was 
proposed,  therefore,  to  reprint  such  tracts  as  were  of 
1  Force  to  Stevens,  April  5,  1851.  Force  MSS. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        291 

most  value  and  to  make  them  accessible  to  a  larger 
number  of  readers  than  could  otherwise  see  them. 
Of  the  thirteen  numbers  in  the  first  volume  two  had 
not  been  printed  before  that  and  two  others  were  now 
for  the  first  time  published  in  connected  form. 

Force's  "Tracts"  have  long  been  considered  an 
indispensable  work  among  the  collections  of  early 
Americana,  although  they  are  somewhat  superseded 
in  recent  times  by  the  inclusions  of  most  of  the  tracts 
in  various  local  or  modern  collections.  The  preparation 
was  to  Force  a  labor  of  love.  He  was  not  a  rich 
man  and  was  frequently  in  straitened  circumstances. 
It  was,  therefore,  not  an  easy  thing  to  get  out  the 
volumes.  He  said  in  this  connection:  "Whenever  I 
found  a  little  more  money  in  my  purse  than  I  absolutely 
needed,  I  printed  a  volume  of  Tracts."  l  They  were 
brought  out  without  notes  or  other  editorial  amplifica 
tion. 

In  his  old  age  Force  became  interested  in  Arctic 
exploration  and  the  invention  of  printing ;  and  he  was 
one  of  the  many  men  of  his  day  who  tried  to  solve  the 
fascinating  puzzle  of  the  authorship  of  Junius'  letters. 
In  1852  he  published  a  pamphlet  in  defense  of  the 
claims  of  the  American  expedition  that  went  out  in 
search  for  Sir  John  Franklin  and  his  party.  The  title 
was  "Grinnell  Land,  Remarks  on  the  English  Maps  of 
Arctic  Discoveries  in  1850  and  1851."  Controversy 

^pofford,  A.  R.,  "Life  and  Labors  of  Peter  Force,"  in  Records  of  the 
Columbia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  II,  p.  4. 


292  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

followed,  and  the  next  year  he  published  a  second 
pamphlet  called  a  "Supplement  to  Grinnell  Land." 
In  a  controversy  Force  was  likely  to  speak  with 
biting  words,  but  he  was  always  patriotic.  In  1856 
he  published  in  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to 
Knowledge  a  treatise  called  "  Record  of  Auroral  Phe 
nomena  observed  in  the  higher  Northern  Latitudes." 
His  fervent  desire  to  defend  his  country's  history  led 
him  in  1855  to  publish  a  pamphlet  in  reply  to  some  of 
Lord  Mahon's  strictures  on  the  outbreak  of  our  revo 
lution.  It  was  called  "The  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence,  or  Notes  on  Lord  Mahon's  History  of  the  Ameri 
can  Declaration  of  Independence." 

Force  is  also  remembered  for  other  services  to  his 
torical  literature.  He  discovered  the  proclamation  of 
Governor  Josiah  Martin  of  North  Carolina,  in  which 
mention  was  made  of  certain  treasonable  resolutions 
passed  in  Mecklenburg  County.  This  proclamation 
had  been  taken  as  supporting  evidence  by  those  who 
believed  in  the  twentieth-of-May  "declaration."  But 
searching  in  the  contemporary  newspapers  Force  dis 
covered  in  the  Massachusetts  Spy,  July  12,  1775,  an 
abbreviated  copy  of  the  resolutions  passed  in  Mecklen 
burg  County,  May  31,  1775.  He  published  them  in  the 
National  Intelligencer,  December  18,  1838,  pointing  out 
that  they  answered  fully  the  resolutions  to  which  Gov 
ernor  Martin  alluded  in  his  proclamation.  Later  on, 
these  resolutions  were  discovered  in  other  newspapers, 
and  more  diligent  research  has  established  that  it  was 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER 

to  them  that  the  governor  referred,  and,  in  fact,  that 
the  so-called  " twentieth-of -May  resolutions"  never  ex 
isted  in  fact,  but  were  only  a  figment  of  the  imagina 
tion.1  Force's  discoveries  in  connection  with  the  con 
troversy  were  but  incidental  to  his  long  and  minute 
examination  of  the  sources  of  revolutionary  history,  but 
they  attest  the  care  with  which  he  pursued  his  tasks.2 

7.    The  Last  Years  of  Activity 

After  the  secretary  of  state,  William  L.  Marcy, 
refused  to  accept  for  publication  the  material  for  the 
tenth  volume  of  the  "American  Archives,"  Force's  life 
passed  into  a  period  of  disappointment  and  sorrow. 
It  was  the  failure  of  the  great  scheme  on  which  his  best 

1  For  a  full  discussion  of  this  subject  see  Hoyt,  "The  Mecklenburg  Dec 
laration  of  Independence."     Force's  share  is  mentioned  on  pages  16-17.     . 

2  Force  seems  to  have  believed  the  resolutions  of  May  31,  1775,  were 
really  a  declaration  of  independence.     In  his  statement  to  McKay's  com 
mittee,  June  26,  1840,  he  said,  while  arguing  that  it  was  proper  to  include 
in  the  "Archives"  matter  which  had   once  been  in  print:    "The  contro 
versy  about  the  Mecklenburgh   Resolutions,  begun  more  than  ten  years 
since,  is  well  known.     During  all  that  time,  notwithstanding  the  earnest 
ness  of  research  and  investigation  of  the  parties  engaged  in  that  controversy, 
no  written  or  printed  contemporaneous  evidence  was  discovered,  either  to 
affirm  or  disprove  the  claim  of  North  Carolina  to  the  first  declaration  of  a 
separation  from  Great  Britain.     Yet  such  evidence  exists,  and  it  is  contained 
in  a  Paper  affirming  the  fact.     This  is  a  printed  paper.     Who  will  say,  that 
because  it  was  printed  sixty-five  years  ago,  it  is  not  now  entitled  to  a  place 
in  the  Archives  of  the  Country;    but  that  after   having  been  buried   in 
oblivion  for  more  than  half  a  century,  it  should  be  left  there  to  perish  for 
ever  ?  "     McKay  was  from  North  Carolina,  and  the  allusion  to  the  Mecklen 
burg  resolutions  was  probably  a  piece  of  guile,  but  it  can  hardly  be  believed 
that  Force  would  have  affected  a  belief  in  the  resolutions  which  he  did  not 
feel.     The  statement  from  which  the  quotation  is  taken  is  in  the  Force  MSS. 


294  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

hopes  were  staked.  Never  a  man  of  strong  social 
qualities,  he  retired  into  his  home  life  and  surrendered 
himself  to  the  impulses  of  a  book-loving  recluse. 
George  Bancroft  in  his  later  years  lived  in  Washington, 
the  center  of  a  prominent  group  of  prominent  men. 
To  a  society  that  was  amply  endowed  with  official 
distinction  he  added  the  much  desired  finish  of  literary 
reputation.  Senators,  cabinet  members,  ministers  from 
European  courts,  and  the  president  himself  were  pleased 
to  entertain  him  and  be  entertained  by  him.  To 
support  this  high  state  he  had  ample  means,  as  well  as 
the  fondness  for  high  social  dignity.  But  Force  had 
neither  the  money  nor  the  taste  for  such  a  life.  His 
home  was  in  a  roomy  old  house  at  the  corner  of  D  and 
Twelfth  streets,  Northwest,  looking  over  Pennsylvania 
Avenue.  The  adjoining  house  was  the  shelter  for  his 
library  and  behind  the  two  was  a  large  garden  in  which 
he  exhausted  his  ingenuity  to  provide  areas  for  flowers, 
lawn,  and  trees.  One  particular  corner  contained 
shrubs  and  trees  intermingled  and  was  known  as  his 
"wilderness."  Love  of  flowers  is  often  a  characteristic 
of  the  scholar  who  retires  from  the  observation  of  the 
world,  and  it  has  been  peculiarly  present  in  our  Ameri 
can  historians.  Bancroft,  Parkman,  and  Prescott 
were  devoted  to  gardening ;  the  first  had  a  rose  named 
for  him  and  the  second  originated  several  new  varieties 
of  plants,  the  most  noted  being  the  Lilium  Parkmanni, 
to  which  his  name  was  given.  An  ugly  brick  building 
now  stands  where  Force's  garden  used  to  be. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        295 

In  his  library,  Force  was  ever  the  serious  student  and 
devotee  of  learning.  To  curious  persons  who  sought 
to  see  one  of  the  reputed  wise  men  of  the  city  he  was 
never  at  home.  But  to  students  seeking  his  aid,  and 
to  book-lovers  like  himself  he  was  the  soul  of  hospi 
tality.  By  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  was  at  his 
table  "collating  and  writing  amid  heaps  of  historical 
lore."  Severe  simplicity  marked  his  environment, 
partly  because  such  was  his  fancy,  and  partly  because 
he  was  not  able  to  afford  rich  surroundings.  "More 
than  once,"  he  said,  "did  I  hesitate  between  a  barrel  of 
flour  and  a  rare  book,  but  the  book  always  got  the 
upper  hand."  Dr.  Spofford,  the  librarian  of  congress, 
often  visited  him  and  together  the  two  men  went 
through  the  treasures  of  the  library.  The  following 
picture  of  the  seven  ample  rooms  in  which  the  col 
lection  was  crowded  is  given  to  us  by  Dr.  Spofford : 

"No  luxurious  library  appointments,  no  glazed  bookcases  of 
walnut  or  mahogany,  no  easy  chairs  inviting  to  soft  repose  or  slum 
ber  were  there ;  but  only  plain,  rough  pine  shelves  and  pine  tables, 
heaped  and  piled  with  books,  pamphlets,  and  journals,  which  over 
flowed  seven  spacious  rooms  and  littered  the  floors.  Among  them 
moved  familiarly  two  or  more  cats  and  a  favorite  old  dog,  for  the 
lonely  scholar  was  fond  of  pets,  as  he  also  was  of  children.  He  had 
near  bits  of  bread  or  broken  meat  or  a  saucer  of  milk  to  feed  his 
favorites  in  the  intervals  of  his  work.  Clad  in  a  loose  woolen 
wrapper  or  dressing-gown,  the  sage  looked  up  from  his  books  with 
a  placid  smile  of  greeting,  for  (like  that  of  many  men  of  leonine 
and  somber  aspect)  his  smile  was  of  singular  sweetness."  1 

1  Spofford,  A.  R.,  "  Life  and  Labors  of  Peter  Force,"  Records  of  the 
Columbia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  II,  p.  8. 


296  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

In  physical  appearance  Force  was  tall  and  erect. 
Curling  hair  covered  his  large  head  even  to  his  old  age. 
His  carriage  was  firm  and  dignified,  as  became  the 
military  man.  He  wore  well  the  rank  to  which  he  was 
advanced  in  the  militia  of  the  District  of  Columbia. 
This  marked  presence  was  probably  one  of  the  things 
that  commended  him  to  the  voters  and  resulted  in  his 
election  to  the  mayoralty  of  Washington.  Having 
resided  in  the  city  from  its  early  years,  he  was  well 
known  on  the  streets,  where  the  citizens  courteously 
saluted  as  he  took  his  daily  walks,  and  where  visitors 
turned  to  remark  his  striking  figure.  Those  who  saw 
were  apt  to  remember  him  long. 

To  his  friends  his  conduct  was  gentle  and  helpful. 
"His  manners,"  said  Dr.  Spofford,  "were  gravely 
courteous  and  simple,  his  conversation  deliberate 
rather  than  fluent,  his  tones  modulated  and  low.  His 
talk  was  often  enlivened  by  an  undercurrent  of  genial 
humor.  Without  egotism  or  pretension,  he  was  ever 
ready  to  impart  to  inquirers  from  his  full  stores  of 
wisdom  and  experience,  while  cherishing  a  wholesome 
horror  of  pretenders  and  of  bores." 1  This  warm 
nature  beneath  a  stern  exterior  was  not  apparent  to  the 
men  who  dealt  with  him  in  a  business  way.  A  more 
expansive  manner  to  strangers  would  have  enabled  him 
to  avoid  some  of  the  disappointments  that  overtook  his 
hopes.  He  who  would  succeed  in  a  world  of  politicians 

1  Spofford,  A.  R.,  "  Life  and  Labors  of  Peter  Force,"  Records  of  the 
Columbia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  II,  p.  9. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        297 

must  have  address  and  open  sympathy  for  casual  as 
well  as  for  real  friends. 

Colonel  Force  lived  in  happy  family  relations. 
Seven  children  of  his  household  came  to  maturity,  two 
dying  young.  One  of  them,  Manning  Ferguson  Force, 
a  graduate  of  Harvard  in  1845,  and  of  the  law  school  in 
1848,  became  a  historian  of  note  in  his  day.  He 
wrote  several  books  on  the  Civil  War,  among  them 
"From  Fort  Henry  to  Corinth,"  in  Scribners'  "Cam 
paigns  of  the  Civil  War."  He  lived  in  Ohio,  and  was 
elected  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society.  He  served  in  the  Civil  War  as 
an  officer  of  volunteers  and  reached  the  rank  of  briga 
dier-general. 

As  Peter  Force  approached  an  advanced  age,  he 
became  concerned  about  the  fate  of  his  collection.  He 
had  long  thought  that  it  might  be  bought  by  the  gov 
ernment  and  kept  together  as  a  great  national  collection 
of  historical  lore ;  but  the  suspension  of  the  publication 
of  the  "Archives"  and  his  consequent  strained  relations 
with  the  officials  left  little  encouragement  for  his  hopes. 
During  the  civil  war  he  could  not  expect  that  a  govern 
ment  straining  every  nerve  to  raise  funds  for  the 
expenses  of  that  struggle  would  devote  a  portion  of  its 
resources  to  book  buying. 

In  1865  efforts  were  made  to  secure  the  collection  for 
the  New  York  Historical  Society.  Force,  as  an  old 
New  Yorker,  was  willing  to  sell  to  the  society,  and  the 
terms  agreed  upon  were :  1.  The  collection  to  be  kept 


298  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

together  and  known  as  the  "Force  Library";  2.  The 
price  paid  to  be  $100,000;  and  3.  Force  himself  to 
subscribe  $10,000  toward  the  sum.  George  H.  Moore, 
librarian  of  the  society,  set  about  the  task  of  raising  the 
remainder,  $90,000.  At  the  end  of  more  than  six 
months  he  had  to  report  that  he  could  not  raise  the 
money,  and  the  negotiations  came  to  an  end.1 

Then  the  matter  was  again  taken  up  by  persons  who 
wished  to  keep  the  library  in  Washington.  A  bill  was 
now  carried  through  congress,  March  2,  1867,  appro 
priating  $100,000  for  the  collection,  and  the  library 
with  its  manuscripts  was  transferred  to  the  library  of 
congress.2  The  transaction  was  largely  due  to  the 
efforts  of  Dr.  Ainsworth  R.  Spofford,  librarian  of 
congress.  He  made  a  report  on  the  character  of  the 
contents  of  the  collection,  dividing  the  materials  into 
the  following  seven  classes  : 

1.  Printed    books   of    several   categories,   including 
early  voyages,  statutes,  documents,  and  other  materials 
relating  to  America;    and  books  in  Spanish,  French, 
and  German  languages  bearing  on  the  general  or  special 
fields.     It  was,  said  Dr.  Spofford,  the  largest  private 
collection  ever  made  in  its  field.     In  all  there  were 
22,529  printed  volumes. 

2.  Extensive  files   of   early  American  newspapers, 
dating   from    1735   to    1800,    and    relating    especially 

1  Force  to  Moore,  May  29,  1865 ;   Moore  to  Force,  May  20,  October  5, 
and  December  11,  1865.     Force  MSS. 

2  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  464. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER 

to  Massachusetts,  Virginia,   Pennsylvania,   and  New 
York. 

3.  Pamphlets  in  the  same  field,  in  all  about  40,000. 
How  valuable  these  pamphlets  were  may  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  the  library  of  congress  then  had  only 
6000. 

4.  Maps  and  atlases  referring  to  American  history, 
many  of  them  describing  events  of  the  revolutionary 
times. 

5.  Incunabula,  collections  of  early  specimens  of  the 
art  of  printing,  many  of  them  examples  from  the  work 
of  the  most  notable  printers. 

6.  Autographs  and  miscellaneous  manuscripts,  relat 
ing  chiefly  to  the  revolutionary  period,  among  them 
many  letters  from  American  generals. 

7.  Transcripts,  materials  collected  and  prepared  for 
publication  in  the  Archives.     Some  of  them  represented 
documents  that  had  been  destroyed  after  these  copies 
were  made.     These  transcripts  remain  a  promising  un- 
worked  field  of  research  to  this  day. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1867  that  the  collection  was 
moved  to  the  capitol,  which  then  held  the  library  of 
congress.  Force,  left  alone  with  the  empty  shelves, 
was  overcome  by  loneliness  and  sought  refuge  in  daily 
journeys  to  the  library.  But  to  see  his  favorite  books 
in  a  new  and  strange  setting  was  no  relief.  His  physical 
powers  began  to  fail,  and  he  died  January  23,  1868. 

In  1879  efforts  were  made,  probably  through  the 
initiation  of  the  librarian  of  congress,  to  continue  the 


300  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

publication  of  Force's  papers.  The  matter  was  intro 
duced  into  the  senate  by  Senator  Voorhees,  and  the 
committee  on  the  library  was  directed  to  report  on  the 
papers  from  1776  to  1783.  This  called  forth  a  report 
from  the  librarian,  Dr.  Spofford.  He  was  not  specific, 
estimating  merely  that  there  was  enough  material  in 
the  collection  to  make  thirty  folio  volumes  of  800 
pages  each,  which  if  printed  like  the  original  volumes 
could  be  published  for  $4  each,  according  to  the  esti 
mate  of  the  public  printer.  No  further  action  was 
taken.1 

The  Force  collection  of  manuscripts  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  treasures  of  the  manuscripts  division  of 
the  library  of  congress.  Dr.  Spofford's  description  of 
the  collection  already  cited  does  not  enable  us  to  dis 
cover  how  many  of  the  manuscripts  were  original  and 
how  many  were  copies.  Inquiries  at  the  division  show 
that  the  originals  were  received  in  about  forty  bound 
volumes,  and  that  they  have  been  cut  up  and  the  sheets 
distributed  with  other  papers,2  so  that  it  is  difficult 
to  make  a  list  of  those  that  were  obtained  through  the 
Force  collection. 

The  transcripts  have  been  kept  together  and  the 
most  valuable  have  been  bound.  They  consist  of 
papers  relating  to  the  following  states :  Massachusetts, 

1  Cong.  Record,  46th  cong.,  Vol.  IX,  prt.  1,  p.  77,  and  prt.  2,  p.  1350 
(March  27  and  May  15),  Sen.  Miscel.  Doc.  No.  34, 46th  cong.,  1st  sess.— 1879. 

2  In  this  investigation  I  have  received  much  assistance  from  Mr.  John 
C.  Fitzpatrick,  of  the  MSS.  Division,  Library  of  Congress,  always  an 
efficient  friend  of  investigators. 


PETER    FORCE,    THE    COMPILER        301 

45  volumes;  New  Hampshire,  17  volumes;  Vermont, 
7  volumes;  Connecticut,  3  volumes;  New  York,  40 
volumes;  Pennsylvania,  4  volumes;  Maryland,  5  vol 
umes;  South  Carolina,  2  volumes;  and  Georgia, 
6  volumes.  The  rest  of  the  thirteen  original  states  are 
not  represented  in  this  collection,  although  it  is  known 
that  Force  had  papers  relating  to  some  of  them. 

The  character  of  these  collections  may  be  seen  by 
examining  the  volumes  for  one  of  the  states,  and  for 
this  purpose  Massachusetts  will  serve.  On  it  were 
more  volumes  than  on  any  other  state.  Resolutions  of 
the  towns  filled  six;  letters  relating  to  the  revolution, 
five ;  petitions,  four ;  papers  of  the  board  of  war,  six ; 
provincial  congress  journals,  four;  provincial  congress 
resolves,  one ;  council  papers,  four ;  council  letters  and 
messages,  three;  committee  of  safety  journal,  one; 
papers  relating  to  military  affairs,  three;  house  of 
representatives  journals,  three ;  general  court  resolves, 
four ;  and  committee  reports,  etc.,  one. 

Thirty-one  of  the  total  number  do  not  extend  beyond 
the  year  1777,  and  of  the  rest  only  a  small  part  of  the 
contents  go  beyond  that  year.  Nor  is  there  evidence 
that  Force  had  collected  many  documents  for  the 
period  earlier  than  1773.  His  habit  seems  to  have  been 
to  make  copies  as  he  needed  them  of  the  well-known 
collections  in  various  states.  But  if  he  came  across  an 
interesting  thing  that  covered  an  earlier  or  later  period, 
he  took  that  also,  on  the  ground  that  he  would  need  it 
some  time.  My  examination  of  the  transcripts  does 


AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

not  support  the  theory  that  he  had  intact  a  vast  col 
lection  ready  to  be  sent  to  the  printer  and  complete  for 
the  revolutionary  period.  It  would  seem  that  he  lived 
from  hand  to  mouth,  as  it  were.  Of  course,  it  is  im 
possible  to  say  how  many  originals  he  had  in  his  col 
lection.  If  these  were  very  numerous,  however,  they 
would  bulk  large  in  the  general  collection  in  the  library, 
where  they  were  distributed.  On  this  point  a  more 
careful  research  than  I  have  had  opportunity  to  make 
would  throw  light  on  the  interesting  question  of  the 
value  of  Force's  collection. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  HISTORIANS  AND  THEIR  PUBLISHERS 

IN  the  preceding  sketches  little  has  been  said  about 
the  arrangements  of  the  early  historians  with  their 
publishers,  a  subject  of  such  interest  to  the  historians 
of  the  present  day  that  it  cannot  well  be  omitted.  We 
do  not  see  the  writing  of  history  on  a  sound  and  re 
spectable  basis  in  any  country  until  it  is,  like  other 
professions,  on  a  self-supporting  footing.  The  laborer 
is  worthy  of  his  hire;  and  it  is  significant  that  those 
historians  have  had  greatest  national  influence  who 
have  reaped  the  best  rewards  from  their  efforts.  Any 
consideration,  therefore,  of  the  growth  of  historical 
literature  in  a  given  period  should  include  a  considera 
tion  of  the  economic  aspects  of  the  subject. 

At  the  time  with  which  I  have  been  dealing  a  book 
that  may  be  described  as  popular  did  fairly  well  in 
both  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  as  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  Washington  Irving  was  paid 
three  thousand  pounds  for  the  copyright  of  a  British 
edition  of  his  "Life  of  Columbus."  The  demand  for 
such  works  was  certain.  It  was  a  time  when  people 
wished  to  have  good  books  in  their  homes ;  and  while 
the  book-buying  class  was  not  large,  it  had  a  real  desire 
for  something  to  read.  History,  also,  was  still  con- 

303 


304  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

sidered  among  the  branches  of  "polite  and  entertain 
ing  literature."  It  had  not  at  that  time  taken  on 
the  character  of  philosophy,  economic  statistics,  and 
political  science  which  makes  it  a  thing  to  be  dreaded 
by  the  mass  of  present-day  readers.  These  conditions 
made  the  task  of  the  popular  historian  a  century  ago 
somewhat  better  than  today,  although  he  had  still 
many  difficulties  to  encounter. 

Belknap  and  Hazard  were  not  to  be  classed  as  popu 
lar.  It  was  theirs  to  write  scholarly  books,  and  their 
chief  reliance  for  the  favor  of  the  public  was  the  desire 
to  perpetuate  the  deeds  of  a  heroic  past.  No  pub 
lisher  waited  to  assume  the  risk  of  publication,  guaran 
teeing  the  author  a  profit  in  the  form  of  royalties  or 
bonuses.  To  get  their  books  published  they  must 
assume  the  risks,  and  their  first  step  was  to  secure 
subscriptions  in  advance  of  publications.  Blanks  were 
prepared,  with  spaces  left  for  the  names  of  subscribers 
below  the  descriptions  of  the  proposed  works,  and  sent 
out  to  persons  who  would  circulate  them  through  friend 
ship  or  for  commissions.  After  the  lists  had  passed 
from  hand  to  hand  they  were  sent  back  to  the  author, 
who  then  knew  whether  or  not  he  might  proceed  with 
the  enterprise.  Some  of  Belknap's  lists  were  left  in 
the  hands  of  booksellers  who  displayed  them  where 
customers  could  see  them.  He  himself  sent  out  those 
that  were  intended  for  New  England,  while  his  friend, 
Hazard,  looked  after  those  sent  out  in  Philadelphia 
and  New  York.  Hazard  insisted  that  an  advance  pay- 


HISTORIANS    AND    PUBLISHERS         305 

ment  of  half  the  price  should  be  paid  by  the  sub 
scribers,  which  was  not  the  custom  in  New  England. 
Belknap  thought  that  this  demand  lessened  the  num 
ber  of  subscriptions. 

The  next  step  concerned  the  actual  manufacture  of 
the  book.  Belknap  made  his  arrangements  with 
Robert  Aitken,  of  Philadelphia,  a  Scotchman  whom 
Hazard  recommended  as  a  better  printer  than  could 
be  found  in  Boston.  The  estimate  of  cost  furnished 
by  Aitken,  which  proved  to  be  a  little  too  small,  was 
as  follows :  For  printing,  including  the  type-setting, 
5  pounds  10  shillings  for  each  of  the  twenty-five  sheets, 
the  edition  to  be  1000  copies.  For  stitching  50  pounds. 
For  58  reams  of  paper  at  one  pound  each,  58  pounds. 
The  whole  edition  would  thus  cost  245  pounds  and  10 
shillings,  equal  to  about  5  shillings  for  each  book  fur 
nished.  The  estimate  was  in  Pennsylvania  currency, 
worth  60%  of  sterling  money.  By  "stitching"  was 
meant  not  only  the  sewing  of  the  books  but  binding 
them  in  boards,  the  customary  form  for  books  of  the 
day.  In  this  connection  an  amusing  situation  arose 
in  connection  with  the  New  Hampshire  subscribers. 
When  the  natives  read  that  the  book  was  to  be  sold  at 
10  shillings  "in  boards,"  referring  to  the  binding,  they 
assumed  that  it  meant  that  the  payment  was  to  be 
in  clapboards,  an  article  in  which  they  were  accustomed 
to  pay  their  bills.  Belknap  discovered  the  error  in 
time  to  save  himself  from  being  overwhelmed  by  this 
kind  of  boards. 


306  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

When  the  book  was  at  last  ready  for  distribution 
prospects  seemed  good  for  large  sales  at  10  shillings 
each.  But  so  many  subscribers  failed  to  take  their 
copies  that  the  author  found  himself  under  a  debt  to 
Aitken  which  he  had  not  the  means  to  discharge.  In 
despair  he  lowered  the  price,  but  to  no  good  end ;  and 
it  was  ten  years  before  he  finally  paid  the  obligation. 
The  publication  of  the  second  volume  in  1791  and  the 
third  in  1792  gave  impetus  to  the  sale  of  the  first.  In 
1791  the  legislature  of  New  Hampshire  allowed  him 
50  pounds  in  token  of  the  esteem  in  which  his  labors 
were  held.  Moreover,  he  was  at  this  time  in  receipt 
of  a  respectable  salary  as  minister,  and  the  "American 
Biography"  and  the  "Foresters  "  were  yielding  him 
something.  All  in  all,  Belknap  was  beginning  to 
prosper  in  a  worldly  way  when  death  cut  short  his 
career  in  1798.  Had  he  lived  longer  he  would  doubt 
less  have  found  that  literature  was  slightly  profitable. 
That  it  was  not  notably  so  is  shown  in  the  following 
statement  from  Hazard  in  1795  : 

"I  am  sorry  that  so  many  [of  the  Histories]  remain  unsold  here. 
It  must  be  charged  to  want  of  taste  in  the  age,  I  believe.  I  more 
than  sympathize  with  you,  for  I  have  not  sold  enough  of  my  Col 
lections  yet  to  pay  for  printing  the  1st  volume !  and  I  believe  you 
have.  Our  friend  Morse  seems  to  be  the  only  successful  author  in 
the  triumvirate.  What  a  pity  it  is  that  we  had  not  been  geog 
raphers  instead  of  historians." 

"Friend   Morse"   was  Jedediah   Morse,   whose  geog 
raphies  and  gazetteers  were  then  in  great  demand. 


HISTORIANS    AND    PUBLISHERS         307 

When  Belknap  began  to  write,  congress  had  passed 
no  copyright  law.  Under  the  old  congress  that  was  the 
function  of  the  states.  But  in  1790  the  new  congress 
passed  such  an  act,  thus  protecting  authors  against 
pirating.  When  a  newspaper  editor  in  New  Hampshire 
announced  that  he  would  bring  out  the  "  History  "  in 
installments,  Belknap  invoked  the  law  in  the  following 
sarcastic  words :  "As  I  am  particularly  interested  in 
the  success  of  that  literary  adventure,  I  beg  you  would 
set  me  down  for  a  subscriber  for  the  Cheshire  Adver 
tiser  for  one  year,  to  commence  from  the  first  portion 
of  the  said  History  which  you  may  reprint,  and  send 
the  papers  regularly  to  me  by  the  post.  If  you  are 
desirous  of  reprinting  the  certificate  from  the  Clerk 
of  the  Federal  Court  which  secures  the  copyright  of 
the  said  History  to  me  and  my  heirs,  agreeably  to  the 
laws  of  the  United  States,  be  so  good  as  to  let  me  know 
it,  and  I  will  send  you  an  authenticated  copy."  The 
"literary  adventure"  was  carried  no  further. 

When  Jared  Sparks  took  up  the  work  of  a  historian, 
the  condition  of  the  literary  market  in  the  United 
States  was  more  promising  than  in  the  time  of  Belknap 
and  Hazard.  The  era  of  manufactures  had  brought 
solid  prosperity  to  New  England,  planting  cotton 
had  made  the  South  wealthy,  and  trade  and  advancing 
land  values  had  proved  a  boon  to  the  people  of  the 
country  generally.  Better  still,  the  establishment  of 
the  North  American  Review  had  raised  the  standard 
of  taste  in  regard  to  serious  books.  Sparks  was  a  man 


308  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

of  unusual  ability  in  discovering  what  kind  of  books 
the  people  would  buy.  He  divined  that  the  existing 
generation  was  deeply  interested  in  the  revolution, 
and  in  the  men  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the  new 
nation.  Here  lay  the  field  into  which  he  decided  to 
carry  his  efforts. 

He  possessed  much  business  shrewdness,  and  his  bar 
gains  with  the  publishers  were  usually  advantageously 
made.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  finan 
cial  considerations  of  his  "Diplomatic  Correspond 
ence,"  which  must  have  yielded  him  a  net  return  of 
several  thousand  dollars.1  When  he  first  made  plans 
for  the  "Writings  of  Washington"  he  expected  to 
appoint  agents  who  would  conduct  an  active  canvass 
for  subscriptions  in  advance.  Several  such  agents,  in 
fact,  were  appointed.  But  before  publication  he 
changed  his  method  for  a  plan  then  coming  into  general 
use  and  destined  to  be  followed  for  many  years  by  the 
historians  in  the  United  States.  He  had  the  type  set 
at  his  own  expense  and  ordered  stereotyped  plates, 
for  which  he  paid.  He  then  agreed  with  a  Boston 
firm  to  allow  them  to  publish  and  sell  4000  sets  of  the 
work,  paying  him  a  royalty  of  about  sixty  cents  a  vol 
ume.  This  firm,  however,  failed  before  the  work  was 
issued,  and  he  made  a  new  contract,  by  which  he  was 
to  be  paid  fifty  cents  for  each  volume  of  the  "Writ 
ings"  and  eighty -five  cents  for  each  volume  of  the 
"Life."  On  the  "Writings"  he  had  to  share  the  pro- 

1  See  above,  page  117. 


HISTORIANS    AND    PUBLISHERS         309 

ceeds  with  Marshall  and  Washington,  but  all  the 
returns  from  the  "Life"  belonged  to  him.  In  1852 
he  said  the  7000  sets  of  the  "Writings"  and  8500  copies 
of  the  "Life"  had  been  sold,  together  with  5500  copies 
of  an  abridged  "Life."  The  last,  in  two  volumes, 
yielded  a  royalty  of  twelve  and  a  half  cents  a  volume. 
Sparks  changed  his  publishers  several  times,  and  it  is 
not  certain  that  the  same  royalty  was  paid  by  each. 
But  it  could  not  have  varied  much  from  the  original 
rate,  and  on  that  basis  he  would  have  received  $8,600 
on  the  two  editions  of  the  "Life,"  from  which  should 
be  deducted  probably  $1,600  for  making  plates.  From 
the  "Writings"  he  would  have  received  $38,500,  on 
which  the  expenses  to  be  deducted  were  by  his  own 
statement l  $15,356.37.  Subtracting  this  amount  from 
the  total  receipts  we  have  $23,143.63,  half  of  which 
was  paid  to  the  heirs  of  Washington  and  Marshall. 
From  these  sources  the  work  would  yield  $18,571.81 
in  fifteen  years  after  the  completion  of  publication. 
But  these  are  not  all  the  sources.  In  1846  Sparks 
made  a  contract  with  Harper  &  Brothers  for  a  cheap 
edition  at  a  royalty  of  twenty-five  cents  a  volume. 
There  were,  also,  editions  in  abridged  form  in  the 
French  and  German  languages,  from  which  something 
was  received.  Besides,  it  must  be  remembered  the 
"Washington"  had  a  moderate  sale  after  1852,  when 
the  figures  were  made  for  the  estimate  here  introduced. 
These  very  figures,  in  fact,  were  submitted  to  pub- 

i  Adams,  "Life  of  Jared  Sparks,"  II,  295.     Also  see  above,  page  118. 


310  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

lishers  in  making  arrangements  for  a  new  edition.  All 
in  all,  it  seems  safe  to  assume  that  Sparks  received  as 
much  as  $25,000  for  his  labors  on  this  work.  Nor 
were  these  labors  necessarily  great.  The  "Life"  was 
a  task  of  considerable  burden,  but  it  was  in  one  volume 
octavo.  Editing  the  "Writings"  was  not  as  laborious 
as  the  size  of  the  volumes  may  suggest.  A  better  edi 
tion  has  been  made  within  recent  years  in  less  time 
than  it  took  Sparks  to  prepare  his,  and  for  a  small 
fraction  of  the  money  he  was  able,  through  his  financial 
ability,  to  extract  from  the  process. 

Sparks  sold  the  copyright  of  his  "Works  of  Frank 
lin"  for  $2,000,  retaining  his  right  in  the  "Life"  that 
accompanied  it.  The  "Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris" 
was  undertaken  with  the  agreement  that  Sparks  should 
have  half  the  profits.  His  returns  from  it  were  incon 
siderable,  as  the  sale  was  small,  and  in  1839  he  relin 
quished  to  Mrs.  Morris  his  claim  to  further  proceeds. 
For  the  "Correspondence  of  the  American  Revolu 
tion,"  the  "Familiar  Letters  of  Franklin,"  and  the 
"Life  of  John  Ledyard"  he  probably  received  little. 
The  "American  Almanac,"  in  which  he  sold  his  half 
interest  after  a  year's  ownership,  proved  to  be  very 
profitable;  but  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  carry  it 
on  while  engaged  in  his  other  work. 

In  the  "Library  of  American  Biography"  Sparks 
probably  possessed  his  most  profitable  literary  prop 
erty.  The  enterprise  began  in  cooperation  with  the 
publishers,  who  paid  one  dollar  for  each  16mo  page. 


HISTORIANS    AND    PUBLISHERS         311 

Sparks  allowed  each  contributor  seventy  cents  a  page, 
reserving  thirty  for  himself  as  editor.  In  return  for 
the  advance  by  the  publishers,  he  agreed  that  they 
might  print  and  sell  2,000  copies.  But  he  himself 
owned  the  copyright,  and  as  the  contributors  were  no 
longer  to  be  dealt  with  he  received  all  the  royalties  on 
the  later  editions.  As  the  work  was  published  in 
twenty-five  volumes,  and  ran  through  a  large  number 
of  editions,  the  receipts  of  the  editor  were  exceedingly 
large. 

Of  course,  his  profits  were  taken  at  the  expense  of  the 
contributors,  who  were  in  the  larger  sense  the  real 
authors  of  the  "Library  of  American  Biography."  By 
accepting  a  cash  sum  for  their  labors  they  threw  away 
future  possibilities.  It  is  an  unwise  author  who  will  sell 
his  labor  for  that  sum  which  a  publisher  feels  he  can 
afford  to  offer  under  such  conditions,  since  no  publisher 
could  afford  to  offer  more  than  he  thinks  is  absolutely 
sure  to  come  back  to  him.  In  entering  into  such  a  con 
tract  the  author  surrenders  all  the  contingency  in  his 
work,  accepting  only  that  which  it  can  hardly  fail  to 
pay.  Report  says  that  for  a  series  of  small  volumes  in 
American  history  that  appeared  in  recent  years  the 
authors  were  paid  five  hundred  dollars  each ;  yet  these 
books  have  sold  to  the  extent  of  more  than  a  hundred 
thousand  copies. 

Sparks's  plan  of  retaining  the  copyright  and  manu 
facturing  the  plates,  while  he  contracted  with  pub 
lishers  to  sell  limited  editions  at  specified  royalties, 


312  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

was  followed  also  by  Bancroft,  Prescott,  and  Motley. 
In  fact  it  became  the  accepted  way  of  bringing  out  a 
book  at  a  time  when  the  publisher  was  not  so  important 
on  the  business  side  of  literature  as  to-day.  The  tend 
ency  was  for  the  author  to  retain  control  of  his  enter 
prise,  and  to  take  a  strong  position  with  reference  to 
the  publisher.  To-day  the  publisher  occupies  the 
stronger  position.  He  is  the  entrepreneur,  and  the 
author  looks  to  him  for  the  initiative,  or  waits  anxiously 
to  see  whether  or  not  his  ideas,  once  formed,  will  prove 
agreeable  to  the  source  from  which  comes  the  only 
opportunity  to  put  them  into  force. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  what  returns  Bancroft  received 
from  his  "History  of  the  United  States."  The  earliest 
volumes  were  in  the  twenty-fifth  edition  in  1878,  and 
the  demand  for  the  book  was  still  active.  In  his  old 
age  the  author  was  in  very  comfortable  circumstances. 
Although  he  had  married  a  woman  of  wealth  it  was 
generally  supposed  that  a  considerable  part  of  his  for 
tune  was  derived  from  the  receipts  from  his  books, 
which  his  sagacity  had  enabled  him  to  invest  advan 
tageously. 

Prescott's  method  of  publishing  was  like  that  of 
Sparks.  He  had  stereotyped  plates  made  and  then 
contracted  with  publishers  for  editions  of  a  limited 
size  for  specified  sums  or  royalties.  For  the  first  edi 
tion  of  the  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella"  the  publishers 
were  to  sell  1,250  copies  within  five  years  and  to  pay 
him  $1,000  in  advance.  The  edition  was  sold  in  five 


HISTORIANS    AND    PUBLISHERS         313 

months  and  other  editions  followed  in  rapid  succession. 
For  the  "Conquest  of  Mexico"  Harper  &  Brothers 
paid  $7,500  for  the  privilege  of  issuing  5,000  copies. 
Here,  also,  a  new  edition  was  soon  called  for,  and  it 
was  issued  with  a  new  contract.  For  an  English  edi 
tion  he  was  paid  650  pounds,  and  it  too  was  followed 
by  a  second  edition  soon  afterwards.  For  the  "Con 
quest  of  Peru"  he  was  paid  $7,500  on  the  day  of  pub 
lication  for  an  edition  of  7,500  copies,  the  edition  to 
be  sold  within  one  year,  and  later  editions  to  be  issued 
at  the  same  rate  unless  the  author  wished  to  make 
other  arrangements.  Throughout  all  the  years  of  pub 
lication  the  demand  for  the  earlier  works  was  consider 
able;  so  that  his  total  receipts  must  have  been  very 
large.  For  the  copyright  of  an  English  edition  of  the 
"Peru"  he  was  paid  800  pounds.  These  were  unusu 
ally  good  terms  for  the  day.  To  obtain  $11,500  for  a 
book  on  a  history  topic  the  day  it  is  published  would 
be  considered  a  remarkable  achievement  in  these  days, 
although  the  population  of  the  country  is  now  several 
times  what  it  was  in  1847. 

The  historical  books  of  Washington  Irving  afforded 
him  a  handsome  revenue.  Before  1835  his  receipts 
from  the  "Columbus,"  the  "Voyages  of  Columbus," 
"Astoria,"  "Bonneville,"  "Grenada,"  and  "Alham- 
bra"  amounted  to  $66,375;  and  of  this  sum  $41,875 
came  from  the  American  editions.  On  these  works 
from  1835  to  1842  his  receipts  were  $8,050.  For  a  few 
years  his  works  were  out  of  print;  but  from  1848  to 


314  AMERICAN    HISTORIANS 

his  death,  1859,  the  return  from  all  his  works  was 
$88,143.  Assuming  that  in  this  period  the  same  pro 
portion  of  the  total  came  from  the  historical  books  as 
in  the  former  period,  he  received  from  this  source  in 
this  latter  period  the  comfortable  sum  of  about  $44,000. 
We  may  thus  conclude  that  at  his  death  Washington 
Irving's  historical  works  had  paid  him  at  least  $118,000, 
and  were  still  selling  well.1 

We  have  little  information  of  Motley's  financial 
arrangements  with  his  publishers.  We  only  know  that 
his  books  sold  in  large  numbers.  A  year  after  publica 
tion  the  "Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic"  had  been  pur 
chased  to  the  extent  of  15,000  copies,  and  the  "United 
Netherlands"  and  "John  of  Barneveld"  went  off  quite 
as  well.  They  long  remained  in  active  demand :  in 
fact,  they  are  still  sold  in  considerable  numbers. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury  was  a  happy  time  for  the  abler  historians  then  in 
the  United  States.  A  great  change  had  come  over  the 
historical  situation  since  Hazard  and  Belknap,  after 
they  had  made  their  gallant  attempts  in  authorship, 
had  found  themselves  with  hands  full  of  unsold  books. 
Genuine  interest  in  history  had  spread  throughout  the 
country,  and  a  prosperous  people  were  willing  to  pur 
chase  well-written  books  which  dealt  with  it.  History, 
a  plant  of  slow  growth,  had  come  to  maturity  in  the 
United  States.  It  was  nourished  by  men  of  great 
literary  skill,  who  gave  their  energy  of  mind  as  much 

1  Pierre  Irving,  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Washington  Irving,"  IV,  410. 


HISTORIANS    AND    PUBLISHERS         315 

to  the  task  of  expression  as  to  that  of  collecting  infor 
mation. 

The  old  school  came  to  its  end  with  the  advent  of  the 
critical  spirit,  whose  greatest  impulse  was  to  test  old 
statements,  to  bring  to  the  surface  new  views,  and 
to  set  forth  phases  of  life  that  were  formerly  ignored. 
Criticism  has  made  history  a  new  creature.  It  is  a 
thing  for  the  readers  who  like  originality.  In  spite  of 
the  great  emphasis  that  is  now  being  given  to  history 
in  the  public  schools  the  circle  that  reads  history  is 
perhaps  not  as  large  in  proportion  to  population  as 
in  the  days  of  Prescott  and  Motley.  Why  this  is 
true  and  how  it  may  be  remedied  are  not  parts  of  my 
subject.  They  are  problems  for  historians  to  solve, 
problems  that  require  as  much  mental  ability  and 
as  much  originality  of  judgment  as  any  of  the  phases 
of  criticism  that  have  to  be  met  and  determined. 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  Lord,  and  Sparks,  98,  103. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  influence  as 
a  critic,  47. 

Adams,  Herbert  B.,  135. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  supports 
Clarke  and  Force,  258,  260. 

Aitken,  Robert,  40,  305. 

American  Antiquarian  Society,  plan 
to  obtain  British  documents,  243. 

"American  Archives,"  88;  the  origin 
of  the  idea,  239,  275 ;  approved  by 
Congress,  247-248;  contract  with 
Livingston,  248;  detailed  plan, 
254,  261;  criticized  by  Forsyth, 
255 ;  in  Congress,  257-261 ;  pub 
lished,  261-263 ;  purpose  explained 
in  preface,  262;  contents  of  vol 
umes,  265,  267,  271,  272;  sus 
pended,  266-270;  agreement  of 
1843,  267;  the  series  discussed, 
270-274 ;  plans  to  revive,  299. 

"American  State  Papers,"  88. 

"Annals  of  Congress,"  88. 

"Annual  Register,"  a  source  of  rev 
olutionary  history,  12. 

Arthur,  President,  on  George  Ban 
croft,  190. 

Bancroft,  Rev.  Aaron,  138. 

Bancroft,  George,  46,  215;  reviews 
Pickering's  lexicon,  68-71;  and 
Sparks,  100;  method  of  editing, 
109;  and  methods  of  education, 
123;  his  birth,  138;  education, 
138 ;  relations  with  Andrews  Nor 
ton,  139-141 ;  instructor  at  Har 
vard,  139-146;  attempts  reforms, 

317 


141-146;  his  part  in  the  Round 
Hill  School,  146-148 ;  as  a  teacher, 
148-150 ;  his  early  literary  efforts, 
150-153;  his  "Poems,"  151;  edit 
ing  textbooks,  151 ;  Mrs.  Lyman 
on,  152;  turns  to  history,  153, 
177;  translates  Heeren,  153;  re 
lations  with  the  North  American 
Review,  154-160,  162-165;  early 
connection  with  Sparks,  154;  ar 
ticle  on  Buttman  and  Jacob,  154; 
on  German  poetry,  155;  on 
Goethe,  155,  156-158 ;  on  Picker 
ing's  lexicon,  156,  163;  on  the 
necessity  for  thrift,  160;  on 
popular  contempt  for  authors, 
163 ;  thinking  of  an  article  on  the 
Connecticut  Valley,  165 ;  influence 
of  Sparks  on  him,  165;  longs  for 
literary  career,  165 ;  his  dislike  for 
teaching,  166,  177;  early  political 
views,  166;  on  Caleb  Gushing, 
167;  his  Fourth  of  July  oration, 
1826,  167 ;  supports  John  Quincy 
Adams,  168;  his  article  on  the 
bank,  168-172;  effects  on  his 
career,  171;  visit  to  Cleveland, 
172;  visit  to  Washington,  172; 
drawn  into  politics,  173;  on 
Bates,  174;  indifferent  to  his 
critics,  176;  relations  with  Van 
Buren,  176;  with  W.  L.  Marcy, 
176 ;  influence  of  Heeren  on,  179 ; 
"History  of  the  United  States," 
first  volume  published,  179;  his 
historical  ideals,  179,  181;  order 
of  publication  of  volumes  in  the 


318 


INDEX 


"History,"  181,  193;  the  book 
commended,  182;  criticism  of, 
183;  ostracized  in  Boston,  184; 
collector  of  port  at  Boston,  184 ; 
political  career,  185;  supports 
Van  Buren,  185,  188;  writes  life 
of  Van  Buren,  185;  controversy 
with  Josiah  Quincy,  186;  with 
G.  W.  Greene,  187;  criticism  of, 
187;  supports  Polk,  188;  ap 
pointed  secretary  of  the  navy, 
189-191 ;  distinguished  in  society, 
189;  establishes  the  naval  acad 
emy,  190;  minister  to  Great 
Britain,  191-193;  on  Macaulay, 
192;  collecting  documents  in 
London,  192;  his  period  of  resi 
dence  in  New  York,  193;  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  democrats, 
194 ;  relations  with  Andrew  John 
son,  195;  minister  to  Germany, 
195-200;  flatters  Grant,  196; 
relations  with  Bismarck,  196; 
attacked  by  Victor  Hugo,  197; 
his  pro-German  qualities,  197- 
199;  von  Ranke  on,  198;  his 
democracy  weakening,  199;  his 
"Literary  and  Historical  Mis 
cellanies,"  200;  his  "Tribute  to 
Humboldt,"  201;  "On  the  Canal 
de  Haro,"  201;  "The  Constitu 
tion  Wounded  in  the  House  of  its 
Guardians,"  201;  "History  of 
the  Formation  of  the  Constitu 
tion,"  202;  revises  his  "History," 
202;  his  orations,  203;  address 
on  Lincoln,  204;  as  a  collector  of 
documents  and  transcripts,  204- 
206;  his  manuscripts  in  the  New 
York  Public  Library,  204-206; 
criticized  by  Sydney  G.  Fisher, 
206;  his  literary  habits,  207; 
interest  in  horticulture,  207;  lag 
ging  interest  in  history,  209;  re 
lations  with  Force,  275;  H. 


Stevens,  Jr.,  on,  283,  284;  social 
life  in  Washington,  294;  love  of 
flowers,  294;  his  literary  profits, 
312. 

Bancroft  Manuscripts,  contents  of, 
210. 

Bank  of  the  United  States,  the 
second,  Bancroft's  article  on,  168- 
172. 

Bartlett,  John  R.,  276  n.  1,  277  n.  1, 
288. 

Bates,  Isaac  C.,  173;  Bancroft  on, 
174. 

Belknap,  Jeremy,  181;  his  "History 
of  New  Hampshire,"  15,  30-32, 
40;  as  a  historian,  24;  relation 
with  Hazard,  24,  31,  35,  39-43, 
304  ;  his  early  life,  25 ;  as  a  minis 
ter,  25-27;  controversy  at  Dover, 
N.  H.,  25;  settles  in  Boston,  27; 
early  leaning  to  history,  27;  and 
Governor  Wentworth,  28;  to 
Captain  Waldron,  29;  a  Whig, 
29;  "The  Foresters,"  31-35; 
"American  Biography,"  35;  and 
the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  35-37;  on  the  task  of  the 
historian,  41;  "The  Pleasures  of 
a  Country  Life,"  41  n. ;  as  a  his 
torian,  43;  conditions  under 
which  he  published  his  histories, 
304-306. 

Beverley,  Robert,  his  "History  of 
Virginia,"  4. 

Bismarck,  Otto  von,  relations  with 
Bancroft,  196. 

Blair,  F.  P.,  266.  See  also  Blair  and 
Rives. 

Blair  and  Rives,  82 ;  diplomatic  cor 
respondence,  246. 

Bozman,  J.  L.,  48. 

Bradford,  William,  2;  his  "History 
of  Plymouth  Plantation,"  5. 

Brodhead,  J.  R.,  48,  287. 

Brown,  John  Carter,  287. 


INDEX 


319 


Burk,  John  Daly,  16;    Chief  Justice 

Marshall  on,  77. 
Burke,  Edmund,  his  writings  on  the 

American  revolution,  13. 

Campbell,  Charles,  48. 

Cass,  Lewis,  269. 

Chalmers,  George,  "Political  An 
nals,"  44,  240;  "Introduction  to 
the  Revolt,"  44. 

Channing,  Edward  T.,  64. 

Circourt,  Adolphe  de,  215. 

Clarke,  John,  186. 

Clarke,  Matthew  St.  Clair,  becomes 
interested  in  the  "American  Ar 
chives,"  244;  on  the  opposition, 
263 ;  retires  from  partnership,  266. 
See  also  Force,  and  "  American 
Archives." 

Clayton,  John  M.,  268. 

Clergy,  literary  influence  of,  114. 

Cogswell,  Joseph  Green,  123,  215; 
early  relations  with  Bancroft,  146 ; 
his  part  in  the  Round  Hill  School, 
146-148;  methods  of  instruction, 
148. 

Golden,  Dr.  Cadwallader,  11. 

Continental  Congress,  Journals  of, 
273  n.  1,  274. 

"Critter,  the,"  nickname  for  Ban 
croft,  148,  150. 

Gushing,  Caleb,  pronounced  a  trim 
mer,  167. 

Deane,  Charles,  278,  287. 
"Debates  in  Congress,"  88. 
Democratic  Review,  215. 
Dover,  New  Hampshire,  Belknap  at, 

25-27. 

Drake,  Samuel  G.,  278. 
Draper,  Lyman  C.,  278. 
Dunning,  William  A.,  195. 

Eliot,  Rev.  John,  36. 

Eliot,  S.  A.,  79;    and  the  letters  of 


Washington,  105;  and  education, 
123. 

Eliot,  William  H.,  to  Sparks,  62 ;  on 
the  Washington  manuscripts,  79. 

Ellis,  Rev.  George  E.,  on  Bancroft, 
148. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  on  Bancroft, 
143;  on  Bancroft's  "History,"  182. 

Everett,  Alexander  H.,  misuses  Ban 
croft's  bank  article,  168. 

Everett,  Edward,  editor  of  the 
North  American  Review,  61,  64 ; 
sells  his  share,  65 ;  on  Sparks,  79 ; 
and  education,  123 ;  early  relations 
with  Bancroft,  138;  his  reviews 
shortened,  159 ;  Bancroft  to,  on 
the  election  of  1828,  168;  Bancroft 
to,  on  politics  in  1834,  174,  177; 
advised  Bancroft  to  write  history, 
177;  on  Bancroft's  "History," 
182;  aids  Clarke  and  Force,  247, 
258. 

Farrar,  Professor,  82. 

Fisher,  Sydney  G.,  on  Bancroft,  206. 

Fitzpatrick,  John  C.,  300  n.  2. 

Force  Manuscripts,  299,  300-302. 

Force,  Peter,  as  compiler,  109,  113; 
his  early  life,  233-235;  in  Wash 
ington  politics,  235;  his  military 
experience,  235;  his  "Unwritten 
History,"  236;  early  literary  ef 
forts,  236-238;  the  "Biennial 
Register,"  237;  the  "National 
Calendar,"  237;  editor  of  the 
National  Journal,  237 ;  "Directory 
of  Congress,"  238;  influenced  by 
Sparks,  239;  origin  of  the  "Ar 
chives,"  239,  244-246,  275 ;  forms 
partnership,  244 ;  applies  for  con 
tract,  246;  success  of  application, 
248;  his  "Documentary  History 
of  the  Revolution,"  247,  248,  254 ; 
terms  of  contract,  249;  his  es 
timate  of  the  cost  of  the  "  American 


320 


INDEX 


Archives,"  249-251 ;  collecting  ma 
terials,  251;  opposition  to  the 
project,  252-261;  the  work  pub 
lished,  261-263 ;  plan  and  purpose, 
261-263;  difficult  to  get  money 
from  Congress,  263-267 ;  the  agree 
ment  of  1843,  266;  suspension  of 
"American  Archives,"  266-270; 
not  an  editor,  272;  his  work 
criticized,  272-274;  accurate  edi 
tions,  273;  as  a  collector,  274- 
293;  buying  books,  275,  276; 
to  Ludewig,  277;  relations  with 
Henry  Stevens,  Jr.,  281-290 ;  and 
the  London  Exhibition,  289;  his 
"Tracts,"  290;  interest  in  Arctic 
exploration,  291 ;  "Grinnell  Land," 
291;  "Supplement  to  Grinnell 
Land,"  292;  "Record  of  Auroral 
Phenomena,"  292;  "Notes  on 
Mahon's  'History,'"  292;  on  the 
"Mecklenburg  Declaration,"  292, 
293  n.  1 ;  his  private  life,  293-297 ; 
love  of  flowers,  294;  his  library, 
295-299;  its  contents,  298;  his 
death,  299. 

Force  Manuscripts,  299,  300-302. 

Ford,  W.  C.,  6;  on  Force's  "Amer 
ican  Archives,"  274. 

Folsom,  Charles,  73. 

Forsyth,  John,  opposed  to  the 
"American  Archives,"  253-256; 
his  fairness,  261. 

Franklin,  Walter  S.,  244. 

"  Friar  Lubin,"  101. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  on  Motley,  225. 

Gales,  Joseph,  Jr.,  273.     See  Gales 

and  Sea  ton. 
Gales   and   Sea  ton,    the   "American 

State  Papers,"  239,  246,  249. 
Gayarre,    Charles    Etienne    Arthur, 

his    early    life,    49;     his    literary 

labors,  50-55 ;  his  old  age,  55. 
Georgia,  and  British  records,  242. 


Gordon,  Rev.  William,  87 ;  describes 
the  revolution,  13. 

Grahame,  James,  186. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  Bancroft  and,  196; 
and  the  recall  of  Motley,  228. 

Greene,  G.  W.,  187. 

Greene,  Nathanael,  at  Fort  Wash 
ington,  187. 

Harvard,  Bancroft  at,  138 ;  methods 
of  instruction  in  1822,  143;  aids 
the  Round  Hill  School,  147. 

Hawks,  Dr.  Francis  Lister,  48. 

Hay  wood,  John,  48. 

Hazard,  Ebenezer,  on  the  effects  of 
the  revolution  on  history,  12; 
as  a  historian,  24,  43 ;  relation  with 
Belknap,  24,  31,  35,  39-43,  305; 
early  life,  37 ;  connected  with  post 
office,  37;  his  "Historical  Collec 
tions,"  38 ;  influences  Force,  239 ; 
his  grant  cited  by  Clarke  and 
Force,  249 ;  conditions  under  which 
he  published,  304. 

Heeren,  A.  H.  L.,  position  as  a 
teacher,  125;  his  works  trans 
lated,  153 ;  influence  on  Bancroft, 
178,  179,  180. 

Henry,  Patrick,  life  of,  by  Wirt,  14. 

Hentz,  N.  M.,  148. 

Higginson,  T.  W.,  on  methods  of 
early  editors,  108. 

Hildreth,  Richard,  early  career,  46; 
his  "History  of  the  United  States," 
46;  revised  quotations,  109. 

Holland,  Lord,  and  Sparks,  94,  95, 
129. 

Holmes,  Rev.  Abiel,  his  "American 
Annals,"  45,  87. 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  on  Motley,  230. 

Hugo,  Victor,  on  Bancroft,  197. 

Hunt,  Gailliard,  274. 

Huntsman,  Adam,  opposes  Clarke 
and  Force,  260. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne,  9. 


INDEX 


321 


Hutchinson,  Thomas,  181;  his  "His 
tory  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  9-11. 

Indian  wars,  history  of,  7. 

Ingraham,  Edward  D.,  279. 

Irving,  Washington,  his  historical 
works,  22;  his  "Knickerbocker 
History,"  233,  234  n.  1;  returns 
from  his  historical  works,  303,  313. 

Jameson,  J.  Franklin,  182. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  his  message  written 
by  Bancroft,  195 ;  his  appointment 
of  Bancroft  to  Berlin,  195. 

Johnson,  Cave,  opposed  to  "Amer 
ican  Archives,"  258-260. 

King,  Miss  Grace,  on  Gayarre,  54. 

Kingsley,  Professor  James  L.,  282. 

Kirkland,  President  J.  T.,  199;  re 
lations  with  Bancroft,  139,  142, 
145,  146,  147,  153. 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  96. 

Lansdowne,  Lord,  and  Sparks,  94, 
95. 

Lawson,  John,  11. 

Ledyard,  John,  Sparks  interested  in, 
72. 

Livermore,  George,  278,  287. 

Livingston,  Edward,  and  the  con 
tract  with  Clarke  and  Force,  247, 
248,  253. 

Loomis,  Rev.  Hubbel,  58,  122. 

Loudon,  Archibald,  "Indian  Narra 
tive,"  279. 

Ludewig,  H.  E.,  277. 

Lyman,  Mrs.  Joseph,  on  Bancroft, 
152. 

Mably,  "Sur  1'Etude  de  1'Histoire," 

213. 
Macaulay,  Thomas  B.,  Bancroft  on, 

192. 
McCall,  Hugh.  48. 


McKay,  James  J.,  264-266;  Force 
to,  293  n.  1. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  James,  and  Sparks, 
94,  95,  99. 

McLane,  Louis,  253. 

Mahon,  Lord,  and  the  Sparks  con 
troversy,  101-104,  106,  107;  Force 
on,  292. 

Marbois,  Marquis  de,  96. 

Marcy,  William  L.,  relations  with 
Bancroft,  177;  refuses  to  write 
life  of  Van  Buren,  185 ;  refuses  to 
approve  the  "American  Archives," 
268,  269 ;  his  point  of  view,  270. 

Marshall,  John,  Chief  Justice,  his 
"Life  of  Washington,"  14;  and 
the  Washington  letters,  75,  76; 
Sparks's  interview  with,  76. 

Martin,  Frangois  Xavier,  50. 

Massachusetts,  early  historians  in, 
1 ;  influences  that  shaped  thought, 
2,  3,  5. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
founded,  35-37;  plan  to  obtain 
British  documents,  243. 

Mease,  Dr.,  74. 

Minot,  George  Richards,  15. 

Moore,  George  H.,  and  Force's 
library,  298. 

Moore,  John  Bassett,  112. 

Morse,  Jedediah,  probable  influence 
on  Force,  239;  profits  on  his 
books,  306. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  his  literary 
position,  211 ;  conversation  with 
Prescott  about  Philip  II,  219 ;  his 
early  life,  223;  "Morton's  Hope," 
223;  "Merry  Mount,"  224;  in 
Brussels,  225 ;  "Rise  of  the  Dutch 
Republic,"  225 ;  his  large  scheme, 
226;  "History  of  the  United 
Netherlands,"  226;  minister  to 
Austria,  227;  to  England,  227; 
"John  of  Barneveld,"  228;  his 
death,  229;  his  literary  style, 


322 


INDEX 


229-232;  compared  with  Rubens, 
230;  with  Prescott,  231;  literary 
profits,  314. 

Murphey,  Archibald  D.,  his  pro 
posed  history,  240,  243. 

Murray,  Sir  George,  98,  103. 

National  Journal,  the,  237. 

New  York  Historical  Society,  tries 
to  purchase  Force's  library,  297. 

North  American  Review,  168,  169, 
170,  171,  215,  224;  Sparks  its 
editor,  59;  edited  by  Edward 
Everett,  61,  64;  edited  by  E.  T. 
Channing,  64;  its  early  history, 
64 ;  under  the  direction  of  Sparks, 
65-71 ;  influence  on  literature,  66, 
307. 

Northampton,  Massachusetts,  the 
scenery,  147;  Round  Hill  School 
at,  147-150;  Gazette  on  Bancroft, 
173. 

North  Carolina,  "Internal  Improve 
ments  in,"  72 ;  state  of  records  in, 
92;  Murphey's  proposed  history 
of,  240;  looking  to  the  collection 
of  documents,  242. 

Norton,  Andrews,  refuses  pay  for 
articles,  66;  on  the  literary  in 
fluence  of  the  ministers,  114; 
relations  with  Bancroft,  139-141; 
on  New  England  society,  141. 

Oldmixon,  John,  4,  44. 
Onderdonck,  Henry,  278. 

Palfrey,  Rev.  John  Gorham,  his 
"History  of  New  England,"  47, 
48;  his  "Compendious  History," 
48;  defends  Sparks,  106-108. 

Panizzi,  Sir  Anthony,  employs  H. 
Stevens,  Jr.,  288. 

Parker,  Theodore,  on  Bancroft's 
"History,"  183. 

Parkman,  Francis,  in  later  group, 
vii;  love  of  flowers,  294. 


Parsons,  Theophilus,  64. 

Pequot  war,  8. 

Percy,  George,  1. 

Philadelphia,  its  relation  to  litera 
ture,  48. 

Philip's  war,  King,  8. 

Pickering,  John,  Bancroft's  review 
of  his  lexicon,  68-71,  158,  163. 

Pickett,  Albert  J.,  48. 

Pitkin,  Timothy,  his  "Political  and 
Civil  History,"  45,  87;  his"  Statis 
tical  View,"  46. 

Polk,  President,  252;  and  Bancroft, 
188. 

Pory,  John,  1. 

Prescott,  William  Hickling,  94;  on 
the  North  American  Review,  67; 
retains  friendship  with  Bancroft, 
185;  his  "Biographical  and 
Critical  Miscellanies,"  201;  his 
literary  position,  211 ;  early  life, 
212;  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella," 
213-215;  literary  method,  213, 
215,  216,  220;  "Conquest  of 
Mexico,"  215-218;  "Conquest  of 
Peru,"  218;  "History  of  Philip 
II,"  219 ;  agreement  with  Motley, 
219;  his  death,  220;  manner  of 
work,  221,  224;  compared  with 
Motley,  231 ;  literary  profits,  312. 

Prince,  Thomas,  his  "Chronological 
History,"  8. 

Proud,  Robert,  16-18;  his  "History 
of  Pennsylvania,"  17. 

Publishing,  conditions  of,  303-314. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  and  Sparks,  126; 
Bancroft's  controversy  with,  186. 

Ramsay,  Dr.  David,  87 ;  his  "History 

of  the  American  Revolution,"  13 ; 

his  "History  of  South  Carolina," 

16. 
Ranke,  Leopold  von,  on  Bancroft's 

"History,"  198. 


INDEX 


323 


Red  line  map,  129-131. 

Reed,  W.  B.,  278;    and  the  Sparks 

controversy,  101,  104. 
Revolution,  American,  influence  on 

history  writing,  11,  18. 
Rich,  Obadiah,  273  n.  1,  287. 
Rives,  John  C.,  266.     See  also  Blair 

and  Rives. 
Round  Hill  School,  the,  established, 

146;    its  character,  146-148. 
Rowlandson,  Mrs.  Mary,  8. 

Sandys,  George,  1. 

Smith,  Buckingham,  278. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  1,  4. 

Smith,  Samuel,  11. 

Smith,  Sydney,  and  Sparks,  94,  95. 

Smith,  William,  11. 

South  Carolina,  plan  to  secure  British 
documents,  242. 

Sparks,  Jared,  and  Belknap's  "Amer 
ican  Biography,"  35 ;  early  life, 
57-59 ;  minister  in  Baltimore,  59- 
64;  publishes  the  "Unitarian 
Miscellany,"  60;  editor  of  the 
North  American  Review,  59,  64- 
71,  154 ;  William  H.  Eliot  to,  61 ; 
opinion  of  emancipation,  63 ;  con 
tributor  to  reviews,  63,  72;  pur 
chases  the  North  American  Review, 
65;  his  editorial  methods,  66; 
relation  with  contributors,  68-71 ; 
early  literary  taste,  71;  turns  to 
history,  73 ;  takes  up  Washington, 
73;  approaches  B.  Washington, 
74 ;  tour  in  South,  75-77,  91 ;  on 
Marshall,  76;  makes  agreement 
with  B.  Washington,  78 ;  popular 
ity  in  Boston,  79;  profits  on  the 
"Washington,"  79;  historical  ac 
tivity  before  1840,  81;  interest 
fails,  81 ;  "Life  of  John  Ledyard," 
82;  "Diplomatic  Correspondence 
of  the  Revolution,"  82,  111-113, 
117,  135;  "The  American  Alma 


nac,"  82;  "Life  of  Gouverneur 
Morris,"  83;  "Life  and  Writings 
of  Washington,"  83;  "Works  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,"  84 ;  "Library 
of  American  Biography,"  85;  on 
writing  biography,  86;  "Corre 
spondence  of  the  American  Revolu 
tion,"  87;  plan  for  "Documentary 
History,"  89,  92;  a  collector  of 
historical  documents,  90-100 ;  first 
visit  to  Europe,  93-100;  in  Lon 
don,  93-96,  97-99;  in  Paris,  96; 
criticized  for  his  editorial  methods, 
100-113;  controversy  with  Lord 
Mahon,  101-104, 106, 107 ;  method 
of  editing,  102,  103,  104,  107,  110, 
111-113;  defended  by  Palfrey, 
106;  his  literary  style,  114;  his 
manner  of  living,  116;  and  Dr. 
Walter  Channing,  116,  120;  his 
returns  from  his  books,  117-119, 
307-312;  his  "Life  of  Washing 
ton,"  118;  methods  of  literary 
work,  119;  and  F.  W.  P.  Green 
wood,  121 ;  and  his  mother,  121 ; 
his  ideas  on  education,  123,  132, 
133;  refuses  Alford  professorship, 
125;  professor  at  Harvard,  126- 
131 ;  second  visit  to  Europe,  129 ; 
finds  "red-line  map,"  129;  presi 
dent  of  Harvard,  131-133 ;  his  do 
mestic  life,  134;  his  death,  135; 
his  lagging  interest  in  history, 
134-137;  his  manuscripts  in  Har 
vard  Library,  137;  early  rela 
tions  with  Bancroft,  154;  his 
policy  as  editor,  154;  relations 
with  Bancroft,  154-160,  162-165; 
on  reviewing,  155,  156-158;  in 
fluence  of  "Diplomatic  Corre 
spondence"  on  Force,  245,  248, 
249,  259;  relation  with  Force, 
275 ;  his  literary  income,  307-312 , 
from  the  "Washington,"  308-310; 
on  the  "Franklin,"  310;  on  the 


324 


INDEX 


"Morris,"  310;  on  the  "Library 
of  American  Biography,"  310. 

Sparks,  Mrs.  Mary  C.  S.,  134. 

Sparks  Manuscripts,  137. 

Spofford,  A.  R.,  on  Force,  295,  296; 
securing  Force's  library  for  Con 
gress,  298. 

Stevens,  Henry,  Force  and,  280. 

Stevens,  Henry,  Jr.,  and  the  Franklin 
papers,  85 ;  Force's  relations  with, 
281-290;  his  early  career,  281; 
goes  to  London,  287;  his  success 
there,  287-289. 

Stevens,  W.  B.,  48. 

Stith,  William,  his  "History  of  Vir 
ginia,"  4. 

Storrow,  Miss  A.  G.,  79. 

Story,  Joseph,  refuses  pay  for  articles, 
66;  on  Bancroft's  "History,"  182. 

Strachey,  William,  1. 

Thacher,  Rev.  Peter,  36. 

Ticknor,  George,  and  education,  123, 
125;  struggle  for  reform  at  Har 
vard,  132;  relations  with  Ban 
croft,  141,  142;  attempts  to 
introduce  reforms  at  Harvard, 
143,  146;  his  advice  to  Bancroft 
in  regard  to  politics,  176;  his 
"Life  of  Prescott,"  221. 

Tocqueville,  Alexis  de,  on  Belknap's 
"New  Hampshire,"  31. 

Trumbull,  Benjamin,  15,  45. 

Tucker,  George,  his  "History  of  the 
United  States,"  49;  his  "Life  of 
Jefferson,"  49. 

Tudor,  William,  36. 


Van  Buren,  Martin,  his  relations 
with  Bancroft,  176,  185 ;  his  life 
by  Bancroft,  185;  defeated  for 
nomination,  188;  advice  to  Ban 
croft,  190. 

Vanderpoel,  Aaron,  258. 

Virginia,  early  historians  in,  1;  in 
fluences  that  shaped  thought,  2, 
3,4. 

Waldron,  Captain,  29. 

Warren,  Mrs.  Mercy  Otis,  23. 

Washington,  Bushrod,  his  connection 
with  the  Washington  letters,  74-80. 

Washington,  George,  life  of,  by  Mar 
shall,  14;  by  Weems,  21;  on 
Sparks's  edition  and  the  "  Writ 
ings,"  see  Sparks. 

Webster,  Daniel,  and  Sparks,  130. 

Weems,  Mason  Locke,  as  a  writer  of 
books,  19-22;  his  "Life  of  Wash 
ington,"  21. 

Wentworth,  Governor,  28. 

WTieeler,  John  H.,  his  opinion  of 
his  "History  of  North  Carolina," 
278. 

Whitaker,  Rev.  Alexander,  1. 

Williams,  Rev.  John,  8. 

Williamson,  Dr.  Hugh,  16. 

Wingfield,  Edward  Maria,  1. 

Winslow,  Edward,  2. 

Winthrop,  John,  2;  his  "History 'of 
New  England,"  6. 

Wirt,  William,  his  "Life  of  Patrick 
Henry,"  14. 

Wordsworth,  William,  calls  on 
Sparks,  95. 


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"B^vsett 


CalJ  Number: 


B3 


El 
B3 


143654 


